Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Bulletin: Pedro Hernandez: Developing situation; CBS reports hung jury - but defence not granted mistrial; (NBC reports that judge has ordered jury to continue deliberating. HL);

The jury deliberating in the murder trial of a man accused of kidnapping and killing 6-year-old Etan Patz in 1979 says it is deadlocked. Jurors have been deliberating since April 15. They sent a note to the judge Wednesday afternoon saying they have been unable to reach a unanimous decision in the trial of Pedro Hernandez. The defense argued for a mistrial, saying it was obvious the jury was hung. “Any charge to them at this point, even sending a note in to them saying, ‘Would you like to try harder?’ is inherently coercive,” said lawyer Alice Fontier. “We believe that a mistrial is warranted, and any further proceedings after that are over the strenuous objections of the defense.”"
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/04/29/etan-patz-hung-jury/