Word: acquit
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After an hour of arguing, the jurors took their first vote by a show of hands: four to acquit, two to convict, six undecided. The store manager suggested that they all write out their reasons on a blackboard. One by one, they stood up and explained their votes. "I kept hearing 'Beyond a reasonable doubt, beyond a reasonable doubt,' " said Suzanne Sheldon, the writer, who had originally voted for conviction. "And I kept seeing that kid Charles looking up at me from the defendant's table with his big blue eyes. It tore me apart." The jurors...
...actual presentation of evidence took 67 days but proved remarkably inconclusive. Because prison officials had justifiably concentrated on disarming and locking up the 700 rioting convicts, they failed to produce such key evidence as murder weapons and fingerprints. The jurors finally took only five hours of deliberation to acquit all ten defendants. "I'm sure some of them must have been guilty of something," says Tumino, "but the state had no evidence...
...trial had lasted seven weeks, but the jury took only two hours and 45 minutes to acquit the defendants on all 13 counts, ranging from second-degree murder to tampering with evidence. Said McDuffie's sister Dorothy, "We despise the verdict. We hate it." The U.S. Justice Department, too, was appalled. It said it would press for indictments of the ex-police for civil rights violations...
...least four counts of bribery and three counts of perjury. Finally, Cash and the jury foreman, according to Vegos, disappeared into a bathroom to try to work out a deal: Would Cash go along with a guilty verdict on one count if the other jurors agreed to acquit on all the rest? The jurors rejected that idea...
...thought that John Rideout was probably guilty. But the more they discussed the evidence, the more confused they became. One of them recalled Judge Richard Barber's instructions about "proving beyond a reasonable doubt there was forcible compulsion." Finally, on the fourth vote, the jury agreed unanimously to acquit. Said Juror Pauline Speerstra: "We didn't know whom to trust. There were so many conflicting stories...