Posted on 09/28/2014 5:07:38 PM PDT by Dave346
Washington -- Jurors in the murder and manslaughter trial of four Blackwater Worldwide security guards concluded their 15th day of deliberations on Thursday with no verdict in sight, showing that the group of 12 is painstakingly considering the issues of the complex case, which may work in the defense's favor, experts say.
For 10 weeks, the Blackwater jury heard testimony alleging that Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, Dustin Heard and some other members of Blackwater's Raven 23 convoy fired shots in Baghdad's Nisour Square on Sept. 16, 2007, killing 14 Iraqis and injuring 18 others. But the 12-person jury hasn't reached an agreement on the 33-count indictment that includes one first-degree murder charge against Slatten and several voluntary manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and weapons charges against Slough, Liberty and Heard under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act.
According to Chicago-based attorney Lauren Kaeseberg — who represented former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich during both of his criminal trials and his pending appeal — the defense's comparatively short presentation and the long jury deliberations could show that the group intends to hold the government to its burden of proof for every charge in the case.
"The less evidence the defense puts on, the more the focus is put on that burden of reasonable doubt," she said. "It forces the jurors to look at the case and see if they proved each element of each crime beyond a reasonable doubt.”
According to Tom Brunell, a professor of political science at the University of Texas at Dallas, the jury deliberations could be affected by many factors — as varied as the charges themselves, the makeup of the jury and any past experience the jurors have had serving on juries. Typically, more experienced jurors will come to a conclusion sooner, but there could easily be some disagreement on one or more of the charges in the Blackwater case.
“The more serious the charge, the longer it takes,” Brunell said. “The more counts that they have to deliberate about makes things go slower. Guilty verdicts are usually quicker than not guilty verdicts.”
While conventional wisdom says that long deliberations are more likely to favor the defense, Chicago-based defense attorney Carolyn Gurland — who represented Blagojevich during his sentencing — said the long discussions could indicate that the jury members are taking their responsibilities very seriously and have a methodical approach to sifting through the evidence.
“In my experience, they do understand that someone's freedom hangs in the balance,” Gurland said. “Some juries are just extraordinarily careful. They painstakingly go through all the evidence in the case.”
In addition to the murder, manslaughter and weapons charges, the jury has been asked to consider whether Slatten, Slough, Liberty and Heard can even be tried in U.S. federal court for their alleged actions in Iraq under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act.
Although the trial itself went on for 10 weeks, the security guards' defense team only put four witnesses on the stand, after new photographs came to light showing an AK-47 round found near a bus stop by Nisour Square just half an hour after the shooting occurred. The security guards maintain their convoy was fired upon before they shot their weapons, but U.S. Department of Justice attorneys maintain that nothing provoked the incident.
Before starting their deliberations on Sept. 2, jurors listened to two hours of instructions from U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, who presides over the case, in which they were told to carefully consider every element of every count to determine whether the federal government proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Since then, there has been little communication between the judge and jury as deliberations have continued. So far, the case docket contains just two jury notes — discussing the need for adhesive notes and office supplies for the discussions.
“Any time the judge is saying anything to the jury about anything, smart defense and appellate lawyers are looking down the road and saying, 'How can we use this to argue that there's something wrong with the proceeding?'” Gurland said.
But it's unlikely that Judge Lamberth will call a mistrial at this point, according to Kaeseberg. In most mistrial instances, the judge will receive a note from the jury mentioning that they are deadlocked on one or more counts, and he will instruct them once or even multiple times to try to reach some agreement.
“At that point the parties will argue, and most certainly the defense will argue, 'Let it be hung,'” she said. “But it's up to the judge to decide.”
However, Kaeseberg noted that the Blackwater jury may be considering more than just the individual charges, as their decision one way or the other in the high-profile trial will likely be scrutinized by the media and public.
“I think in a case like this where there's so much at stake and it's such a reflection on the war in Iraq and the aftermath of the war, the jurors feel an incredible responsibility to get this right,” Kaeseberg said. “My guess would be they are in it for the long haul. They want to get it right. They want to make sure the decision they come to is one they can live with.”
The cases are U.S. v. Slough et al., case number 1:08-cr-00360, and U.S. v. Slatten, case number 1:14-cr-00107, both in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
May be a hung jury, but I never had a case in 25 years of Prosecuting where long deliberations EVER helped the Defense ... except a hung jury.
Gee, I know I heard that on one of the three network news outlets (SARC).
I've been a juror on at least eight cases over the years that were long deliberations and experienced all three - guilty, not guilty, and hung. I think it's just a matter of who's on (liberal v conservative) IMO, at least that is what I have observed.
I still don’t understand how they are being charged under MEJA. That is basically UCMJ for civilian contractors working on military contracts, the Blackwater guys were not on a military contract, they were working for the State Dept and therefore not under the MEJA rules.
MEJA was amended in 2004 to cover contractors working for other agencies that are supporting the military.
I figured I was missing something. Still a fine line as they weren’t working in support of the military, but were working for the Stat Dept. Thanks for the info on the change in the MEJA.
I haven't read the law, but this was a WWPS contract for the State Department, not DoD. I know *several* guys who were there at the time.
They were certainly fired on first. In addition to the non-NATO rounds found at the SANITIZED site, their vehicles were riddled with bullet marks and there are time-stamped recordings of the radio transmissions at the time they began taking fire as proof. I'm wondering why so few stories are reporting and of this exculpatory evidence.
Most of the casualties happened when the TRT (Tact. Response Team) arrived to extract the first vehicle that was ALREADY TAKING FIRE and pinned in the traffic circle.
Did the men respond harshly in a life or death situation? Yes they did. If you put men into a deadly a s**t-storm like that, of course they are going to respond harshly.
These men got hung out to dry by GWB as a token to his Hadji friends.
If I were a juror in that court I would say not guilty on all of the counts.I would not even think about what could have happened on a battlefield like Iraq.
How can you make a decision to convict if you haven’t experienced the hell hole as it was.
Free the Blackwater guys now.
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