"A Fresno County judge declared a mistrial Thursday in the Megan Martzen murder trial after jurors told the court they remained deadlocked on a verdict. Jurors on Wednesday first told Superior Court Judge Edward Sarkisian they appeared to be "hopelessly deadlocked.""
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/02/14/3174352/mistrial-declared-in-megan-martzen.html
KMJ: More comprehensive story on the mistrial - and the trial which preceded it. "There was a strong group that thought (Martzen was) totally innocent," juror Jennifer Aleman said, "a strong group that thought totally guilty, and then a mix. I think it was just way to left and way to right and we couldn't make a decision." Ultimately the jury was split at a final vote of 10-to-2 on the murder charge and 8-to-4 on the child abuse causing death count; both votes in favor of not guilty. Martzen's attorney, Jeff Hammerschmidt, along with prosecuting attorney Jeff Dupras, spoke to 10 of the 12 jurors after the judge was forced to declare the case a mistrial. "They were very frank with us," Hammerschmidt said. "They were asked whether they thought there was any potential of getting a unanimous jury in the future on either of the counts and all 10 people said there was no chance, on these facts, of getting a verdict on a retrial.'" Since no verdict was reached, the District Attorney now has the option to re-file charges against Martzen, but Hammerschmidt says he is very hopeful that will not be the case in light of the jury's majority vote in favor of his client. "It's not my decision but that's what would make sense," Hammerschmidt said. "If there was 8 out of 12 that believed she did not intentionally cause any harm to the child it does not really make a lot of sense to go forward and waste tax payer money and time when we're likely to have another hung jury or find her innocent. Hopefully that will be taken into account and we won't be having a retrial." If the prosecution does re-file charges, Martzen's second trial could be set as early as next month."
http://www.kmjnow.com/pages/landing?Martzen-Murder-Case-a-Mistrial=1&blockID=665747&feedID=806
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
