I thought it was straightforward: gangsters, guns, graves and gruesome garrottings. The jury would sit down after an hour or so take a test vote see that it was 12 to 0 for conviction and decide to come back the next day with their verdict. The next day came and all we got was questions, no verdict. The questions indicated it was not going to be a stroll in the park straight toward a conviction.
Yesterday brought a strange day – all quiet on the jury front. I read it as the jury finally having gotten over the early jitters had settled into a routine of going through each charge in a systematic matter and arriving at a conclusion. Later in the day they wanted to see one of the machine guns that had an obliterated serial number.
I opined that was just some of the guys wanting to get a close up look at the German-made machine gun because anything they could have wanted to know about it they could see in the photograph. Others suggested I was wrong because they may have wanted to see that the serial number was obliterated. They had evidence from the gun expert that it was. They also had evidence that it was operable and fired. I figured if they didn’t believe the expert when he said it was obliterated then why would they believe him when he said it fired properly. If it was the expert they doubted, today we should be at the secret firing range having the expert lock, load and fire.
Any lawyer who has tried an important case in a criminal matter before a jury will tell you that hardest part on the gut is the wait between charge and verdict. I never especially liked it. Sitting in the office every time the phone rang I’d think it was about the case; or at the courthouse each court officer that walked down the corridor or each knock on the office door would set my nerves a jittering. Maybe it was just me. I couldn’t do any else while the jury was out but wait and wonder trying to figure out what was going on and looking for a little heads up on the final outcome. There was nothing else I could do at that point. I had given it my best. Yet the wait consumed all my attention.
I mention all that because J.W. Carney who has been working this case for a couple of years and is eight weeks into the trial aspect of it caused the news media’s keyboards to flutter. Carney is a master at drawing attention to himself and he did it in spades when he took off his sock and shoe and expounded on his purple painted toe nails. But he’s never done anything close to this before so it shows he too has gone a little over the edge with the wait. Who knows but today one of the prosecutor’s may show up in a lovely purple dress with matching heels.
It was silly time yesterday afternoon with those waiting in court getting the madness which comes with being tired. Imagine then what it must be like for the jurors who have mountains of documents and days of testimony to discuss and who have some among them who believe they should discuss it. What are we to make of all this?
I wanted to hear what the reporters in the courtroom would say about the jurors. Laurel Sweet of the Herald comes through with: “This is not a happy looking group”; Adam Reilly adds, “I’d say they look miserable and exhausted.”
Now I don’t know what to think. Yesterday morning may have been quiet because the jurors were angry at each other and no deliberations were going on at all. Or, maybe they were happy up until 4:00 pm having resolved all their problems and were ready to report the verdict and all they needed was that one person to say OK to one minor issue and then they would not have to come back today and she wouldn’t budge so their frustration is due to being forced to come back tomorrow.
The bottom line is that right now all we can really know is that the jury will begin to deliberated again today. We can’t say the jurors have thoroughly examining the case because we don’t know anything about what they are doing, other than some played around with a machine gun yesterday.
The agents are waiting outside the courtroom contract in hands waiting to sign up the jurors for their stories. Network news waits anxiously to snag one or two. Who knows but one or two of the jurors may have already signed contracts. But no matter what you read, the truth is we know next to nothing.
Matt, “where there is a will there is a way”. Aren’t they easily able to hear someones conversations thru their cell phones and laptops? I’d guess that’s something which could be done discreetly? Hell, they’d probably get their criminal informants to do it for them and report back. LOL
I just think about the disgusting witnesses they pay and protect, some of whom are still walking the streets, and I feel if they engage in that then they will do anything.
Question:
Absolutely – they have access to all that stuff since they have intimidated all the cell phone companies into making those things available to them. The only thing they will have trouble doing is washing it. You know, they have the information how to they make it look like they got it legally. I guess that’s when they have one of their sleaze ball informants come forward and say he overheard on part of the conversation.
Surprise! Surprise! But, it’s not only Lowell PD is it? !
Fox..
”
LOWELL, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) — The Middlesex County District Attorney’s office, working alongside the Essex County District Attorney’s office, has announced that 17 pending criminal cases and two convictions have been vacated due to an investigation surrounding the informants tied to the cases.
On Friday, both offices announced the conclusion of an investigation into allegations made against two confidential informants working with Lowell police between 2010 and November 2012.
Investigators say Mass. State Police received information in Nov. 2012 alleging the informants may have planted narcotics on suspects or provided false information to Lowell police related to narcotics distribution in the Lowell area. Both informants were immediately deactivated by Lowell police, prompting an investigation. In the interest of preventing a conflict of interest, the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office requested Essex County handle the investigation.
At the conclusion of the investigation, the Middlesex District Attorney’s office has concluded that the allegations made against the informants were uncorroborated and that there is not enough evidence to prosecute either informant. However, acting out of an “abundance of caution,” the Middlesex District Attorney’s office has chosen to dismiss any case and vacate any prior conviction if either informant was involved in the defendant’s case.
The district attorney’s office also concluded that law enforcement officials involved in the cases did not engage in any negligent act or criminal activity and there is no evidence indicating that those in contact with the informants knew or should have known of their alleged misconduct.”
Read more: http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/23094279/2013/08/09/17-criminal-cases-involving-informants-vacated-in-middlesex-county#ixzz2bZaE3o7N
Question:
17 pending cases dropped, two convictions vacated, because two confidential informants used by the Lowell police between 2010 and November of last year did nothing wrong.
How does that figure?
Oh, it’s the “abudance of caution” rationale. Everything is fine but just to be extra cautious we’ll throw out these cases. Makes no sense to me.
Matt:
Can you explain a little more about your last tweet, about it being a good idea to waive forfeiture, just in case a juror accidentally reads about the trial..what do you feel Carney’s strategy is behind this decision.
JTB:
If one or two jurors are taking sneak peaks at the news for Whitey to do that will make them think he is willing to give up the money as part of his making restitution for his life of evil. If any have heard he said it should go to the families of the victims, something he has absolutely no control over, that also will tend to modify his evilness. Carney is hoping that will swing some of the jurors over to Whitey’s side where they are having their difficulties, if they are, in arriving at an agreement.
Of course, we are to believe none of the jurors watch or read anything of the trial that has occupied their last eight months.
I wonder if the Feds are illegally listening in on the jurors convos at home to see if they are taking any “sneak peaks”. I wouldn’t put it past them.
Question:
I always wondered if they didn’t have a way to listen to the jury deliberations. Or, at a minimum get sense of what is going on by their contacts in the courthouse, after all they all see each other on a daily basis.
If they have a way to check up on jurors at home or going to and from the courthouse, they’d have a problem covering their activities. One thing the judges would really frown on is jury tampering – so even though the temptation is great, realistically they avoid it.
I was always surprised by the predictions of a day or two deliberations. The way I see it is that if I was there I would think you would average an hour on each of the criminal acts. That would put the deliberations in the 4-5 day range. I may be way off on that guess. Far more experienced people than I felt it would be a day or two…tops.
The strange back and forth with excited attorneys reportedly fingering through law books coupled with the “off topic” question about statute of limitations and the question about needing consensus for “not proven” is pretty telling. Those events gets my mind all aflutter with thoughts that someone(s) is hanging the jury.
Another:
I suppose looking back, we are all wiser doing that, we assumed the jury knew a lot of the stuff that we knew and could easily skip over much of the material. It may be a jury that is content, as you say, to consider the proof on each of the indictments individually rather than saying “of course he’s a money launderer and extortionist.” Most juries are difficult to figure out but we can’t resist trying to do it. I read one post that said the only ones who still stand a chance of being correct in their predictions among the media are a couple of news camera men.
It did look like someone was intent on hanging the jury but the question on “not proven” pointed more to a discussion rather than a boycott.
It can be as simple as a cerain group dynamic compelled by the seriousness of their task and just trying to do the right thing. Thank G-D that there are still Americans who when selected for duty to protect our Rights take their guard duty to heart and won’t be bullied by Government apparatchiks or the self anointed scribblocracy both with their own selfserving interests. The Government’s hod carriers have their own bureaucractic political game playing around ego and rewards and the local press has lost its way. With the demise of the print media and the rise of talking heads there is little in the way of objectivity and independent in depth analysis. The notion that the press is for truth justice and the American Way is now little more than an answer to a trivia question about black and white TV shows.The race to be first to get the scoop is now out of control. Here in the Beantown between the Globe and the Herald your head has to spin on an axis like Jerry Mahoney in order to find the truth. They both are unable to see anything that doesn’t suit their particular dogma.
It’s a rainy day so my money is a decision today after a nice fish combo dinner.
Hopalong:
You lost your money but I hope you had the nice fish combo dinner. Very good post. Agree with all of it. It speaks for itself so I’ll not try to add to it.
There is little good press analysis (Boeri at WBUR for one) but most of it is trite and with little understanding of the whole picture. The seriousness of their task and trying to do the right thing, that’s what we are looking at with this jury.