Sunday, November 3, 2013
Good afternoon:
I write today about Maddy LNU, who was a member of the jury that acquitted George Zimmerman. She ended up being the only member of the 6-person jury to hold out for a guilty verdict. As all of you know, she eventually caved because the other jurors, led by Juror37, convinced her that the prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he intended to kill Trayvon Martin.
Can you say catastrophic error?
The prosecution did not have to prove Zimmerman intended to kill Trayvon Martin because intent to kill is not an element of second degree murder.
The jury instructions informed the jury that the prosecution only had to prove that he intended to commit the acts that resulted in Trayvon’s death. In other words, the prosecution only had to prove that he intended to shoot Trayvon.
Unfortunately, nothing can be done to correct the error because the Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits a retrial
We can, however, spread the word and keep on spreading the word that the jury flat out blew the call. Although its verdict must stand because of the Double Jeopardy Clause, we do not have to accept it and move on.
The simple truth is Zimmerman was and remains a psychopath with a gun and there is a substantial probability that he is going to shoot and kill someone else.
Apparently, the lives of Maddy and her family are in the toilet. She appeared on Inside Edition recently,
Maddy said she had a lost friends and a full-time nursing home job because she served on the jury that acquitted Zimmerman in Trayvon Martin’s fatal shooting. Maddy also revealed that she has received death threats and that her family is close to being evicted from her four-bedroom home in Seminole County.
She may have found a benefactor, however. The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that Doug Kaplan, the managing partner at Gravis Marketing, was touched by her tale of woe on Inside Edition and has decided to offer her a full-time job.
I am curious to know your reaction to the news.
I am frustrated by the improper verdict. Part of me wants to tell her that she deserves all of the criticism. She had an opportunity to stand-up strong for justice and she caved. I believe she deserves to be criticized and should apologize for not standing up to B37 and the other jurors.
On the other hand, she is not the only person who deserves to be blamed and her family does not deserve to suffer the consequences of her bad decision.
I believe the prosecution deserves most of the blame and I intend to continue making that point.
What do you folks think?
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Frederick Leatherman Law Blog 
… and here’s what appears to be Part 2:
There are actually two videos of Jonathan Manalo’s interview by Joy-Ann Reid. But The Grio’s web site is, IMO, hard to deal with. Fortunately, 3chicspolitico has put them on YouTube.
Here’s what appears to be Part 1:
Here is Jonathan Manalo’s book, With A Flashlight And A Cellphone: My Truth
Jonathan Manalo’s book, With A Flashlight And A Cellphone: My Truth is available as an e book on Amazon.
Only $685 has been raised for Maddy.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/george-zimmerman-juror-needs-help
Manalo thinks GZ is guilty
http://www.nbcnews.com/video/the-grio/53248543
For those who may not recall his name, he was a neighbor who lived at the scene of the shooting and went outside after it.
Thanks Prof
Welp, I feel sorry for her eight children, but that is about as far as my sympathy goes in her case. The whole trial was a farce! They slandered and smeared a dead child, his parents, his friends, and kept evidence out. Labeled him thug, his friend illiterate, and his parents no good.
God is not pleased, especially when you do wrong to children, so all of them that were involved will have to pay the piper down the line. They cursed themselves with deception and saved a murderer instead of giving Trayvon and his parents the justice deserved. No justice, no peace! She and all involved in letting Zimmerman go free might as well get use to that. No justice, no peace!
While I don’t feel any major harshness toward Maddy, but rather some pity for her weak stance, it does seem that karma and her conscience are taking her for a spin. She’s the only one who can figure out how to make her merry-go-round stop. If I were her I’d high-tail it out of FL and try to rebuild my life elsewhere.
If I were her, I’d fess up and tell the truth about what really went on in that secluded juror room. Because if the truth be told, they did not even give it serious thought or a serious deliberation. They were too busy treating themselves to being pampered at beauty saloons and watching movies while a murderer’s lawyers humiliated and degraded the Martins and painted an innocent kid with hopes of being a pilot one day, a thug.
I don’t think Maddy will ever fess up about what really went on while in deliberations. Maddy probably was subjected to racist remarks and humiliated by fellow jurors. Believe me, I know how racist white people think and act in the south. Been around them most of my life. Too bad she didn’t have what it takes to take a stand. She never should have been on that jury. Maybe this experience will make her stronger.
Yes, she needs to overcome her lack of self-confidence in order to become stronger and to someday be able to join hand-in-hand with those in the movement to overcome racism and its effects.
She needs to become stronger and announce, “Ain’t nobody gonna turn me around”!
She will never tell the truth. Likely she does not even know it. She’s not real keen on perception; she does not have an analytical mind; and she seems emotionally immature.
Maddy is such a dope, I doubt she comprehended all that much of what went on. Subtleties certainly would have been lost on her. It’s doubtful that even keen sense of the obvious aspects crossed her mind.
She enjoyed the break from a drudge job, the free lodging, food, and entertainment, the overall sense of feeling important, plus the camaraderie with the other five, which she likely thought would continue when it was all over.
“Hey, gals, when this is done, let’s all get together for brunch once in a while.” 🙂
For that, she sold Trayvon Martin down the river and let Fogen go.
Dopes do all manner of harm in the world.
Then they say, “Gee whiz willikers I didn’t think there would be so much harm in the world, uh…well… well don’t blame ME!”
I’m frankly sick of it. Here’s the world we have. It’s a world where Fogen and those like him are allowed to kill young Black kids just because they want to. It’s a lynching-friendly world. Presented to us by a few like Fogen, a few like Judge Nelson, a few like Frank Taaffe, and Maddy and millions like her.
Hopefully this will be a transformative time for Maddy and that she’ll wake up and do better in the future.
Perfect analysis.
I’m not a layer but even i know you don’t have to proven intent in order to convict of murder 2. look all those drunk drivers across the country including Forida who are now serving time for murder.It’s obvious he intended to kill Trayvon.He took careful aim making sure not to hit his own hand and fired and he did it while Trayvon was trying to break free and escape. whether he had planned on killing anyone that night we will never know.But at some point during that confrontation which he started he decided to kill Trayvon and he wanted to make sure he ended up dead.Dead kids tell no tales. if they had bothered ot even look at the evidence they would have voted to convict but they allowed their weak minds to be swayed and manipulated by a nasty hateful woman who was not interested in the truth. instead they chose to take Zimmerman’s word including that ridiculous recreation which was solely based on Zimmerman’s ridiculous statements and none of the evidence and should never have been allowed. there is no state in the union that requires proof of intent when trying someone for murder 2. You don’t have to be a lawyer to know that,it’s just common since. Zimmerman shot Trayvon the full intent for him to die. Now they want to whine and cry and make excuses.I wish she would shut the#$%^& up.
The jury didn’t hear about aiming to miss his hand. The prosecution didn’t prosecute for a conviction. The jury did exactly what the judge, the defense AND the prosecution wanted them to do. The prosecution presented fogen’s case for him and did little to show the extent of his lies.
I think Maddy’s instincts in the trial were on target but she lacked the skills necessary to go against the flow. In the process she went against her conscience.
Why did she go public? B37 went public and was skewered. Why did Maddy think she would be treated any better? I think she is one of the dimmer bulbs in the chandelier and is taking advice from someone not much brighter or someone who is using her.
I really don’t blame her for bowing to the peer pressure but she has made some bad judgement calls since then that have made her life more difficult.
bettykath, Look for a book to be published with the help of the ambulance chaser she is being represented by… Look at the new job and the beg site that has been set up for her. Yes, I would say that a book deal is in the making, will it help her, probably not, but the people that are setting her up in this venture will make money…. Would I buy the book, no, but there are plenty of people out there that would buy it out of curiosity. Title it “I Set a Racist Killer Free” that should boost sales amongst the bigots of the world…
She’s an ADULT ADULTS ARE SUPPOSE TO KNOW NOT TO BOW TO PEER PRESSURE SHE’S WEAK MINDED. I Have no sympathy for her.
I wish that more of the jurors would go public. I think that it would tell us a lot if we could find out more about what the points of view/thought processes of the other jurors were, and more about what went on during deliberations.
A couple of quick points that I would like to bring up! To those of you that evidently do not know, Maddy has been hired to work for Gravis Marketing (a right wing polling organization) owned by Doug Kaplin. Kaplin has also set up a Zimmerman style beg site asking for money.. That seems to be a popular new trend in todays society and beg site’s are on the rise… The next point that I think some of you need to consider is your verbal treatment of Maddy, it seems to run totally counter to your treatment recently of Mrs. George Zimmerman. Many of you that are talking so harshly about Maddy, were more than willing to go the extra mile to forgive Mrs. Zimmerman, why the double standard? How are they much different? They both, in some ways, caused the verdict to come back in a way you are unhappy with, so why judge one harshly and give the other a pass?
crazy, plenty has been said by SZ and her less than stellar behavior during trial and time preceding it. If Fogen were attempting to punch B29 out or destroy property belonging to a former juror, I’m sure there would be some concern. I don’t see a worthwhile double standard.
Trained Observer,
“I don’t see a worthwhile double standard.”
I would respectfully disagree, however you are free to look at the treatment of this person as you wish. I will respect your opinion, but will continue to hold mine…. Hmmm, perhaps Maddy has a prior history of abuse that caused her to have low self esteem, which allowed her to be led to the blog “slaughter house” and is now trying to claw her way back to a new life? Is that not the argument that many used to defend Mrs. George Zimmerman? Maybe all the people that supported the Murderer that was set free will donate to Maddy via her “beg” site to give her a new start in life? Seems like the standing on the street corner with a tin cup has been adapted to the internet…. It’s a strange new world…
Both Shellie Fogenette and Maddy Cowardette are, in my opinion, very limited women who had a strange one-time chance in their lives to figure out if their own self-respect was worth rescuing. Neither of them jumped in and rescued her own self-respect so I do not feel obliged to donate MY respect to either. They’re failuresm deservedly so, and etc. Shellie deserved Fogen and Maddy deserved the verdict.
A pox on both their houses.
Dear Maddy, Your life is what you made it. I can understand if you don’t fully understand the law, but you cannot be that stupid as to not understand and recognize racism, after all you are a minority. Remember, you could have gotten off of that jury, but you chose to serve (and I do believe you even lied to get on that jury). Why didn’t you think of your kids then?.
Sorry baby girl, there are millions of people like me that is just not felling it. I don’t know if you realize it, but what you are doing is pouring salt into our wounds, because most of us have not healed yet. Please do us all a favor and just go away.
I agree with you, Mary, when you write
She IS pouring salt in the wounds.
All of this has taken me back to the night of the verdict with the emotional pain and hurt.
I wrote this on Xena’s site when discussing this latest interview of Maddy’s:
and
@YAHTC. After the verdict I immediately thought about Maddy’s children. I also felt compassion for them, especially her teenagers. I don’t know how she explained her decision to them, but she has to live with that. Now her children have to deal with peer pressure. We know children can be cruel to one another.
I can understand it might be difficult for her, but going public like this is just not the way. Seems to me in order to protect her children, she would move somewhere never to be seen or heard of again, if there’s such a place.
Staying in the spotlight makes her look like just another vulture trying to make a profit off of Trayvon’s death.
I so agree with you, Mary!
Yes Mary, agreed.
She neglected her children. Now she’s subjecting them to abuse. Shame on her over and over again.
I think you generally make a valid point, except that many of us have noted that Shellie has exhibited symptoms of battered wife syndrome, a recognized mental illness. Rather than condemning her outright, we are suspending judgment and taking a wait-and-see approach before deciding whether she is running another scam or actually making an honest good faith effort to be rid of George Zimmerman and get something legitimate going in her life. I have not forgiven her for anything and I do not believe anyone else has either.
I do not believe anyone here disagrees about what she did and whether those acts were improper.
Maddy’s situation is different because she appears to be whining about a reasonably foreseeable outcome. I am not seeing any evidence of a mental illness or mental impairment that would tend to mitigate her responsibility for voting to acquit the psychopath who executed Trayvon Martin.
On the other hand, I have a duty and responsibility to be fair and that means I have to look at the big picture. When I do that, I realize that most people, including myself, will have a tendency to judge her more harshly than she deserves because she was in the spotlight. She was the hold-out and the person with the last clear chance to prevent an acquittal, so it’s easy to blame her for the result.
Yet, she would not have been in that situation if George Zimmerman had not murdered Trayvon Martin and the police, prosecution and judge had performed their jobs. English is her second language, she is not trained in the law, and she was not provided with a set of proper jury instructions. Therefore, I have to resist the urge to condemn her.
In the final analysis, I cannot and will not blame her for the acquittal.
Professor, thank you for you well reasoned response. I do disagree on a few points, one of which is her mental ability, I think this lady did not have the true ability to understand the complex issues of this case, and thus was open for manipulation by other members of the jury. The words we have heard her say since coming out into the light are not IMO hers. The words we have been hearing her say, IMO are not only beyond her reasoning level, they seem to have been rehearsed with much coaching from her “attorney”. The attorney’s role in this is starting to come into the light with the new beg site she has had set up, with the aid of her “new employer”. She is (IMO) unwittingly getting ready to hold a new station in life, that of the “new” poster child for the GOP/TP! Using her, they will attempt to show that they really do care about minorities and after the left wing progressives abandoned her to the wolves they adopted the poor little lady and gave her new hope as all good GOP/TPer’s would do… She is now a political pawn, and a book deal is probably in the works as we speak….
Agree.
I believe you’re right.
The judge sent back the note asking for a more specific question about manslaughter.
We don’t KNOW if that ever became known to the jury. If the one person was doing all the reading, they could have easily pretended there WAS a response from the judge, not a request for more detail. We don’t KNOW. So not fair to blame Maddy for “not waiting for clarification”. For all we know, as far as she was concerned there WAS clarification and that amounted to “the law says he can’t be found guilty”.
Jurors should each be given their own copies of everything and allowed to read it for themselves. Having one person serve as gatekeeper for the flow of information gives that one person way too much power.
You made some good points, Professor. In addition, we should keep in mind that there were 5 other jurors who voted guilty. As far as we can tell, if any of them had held out, Maddy would have also. Many commenters on this blog seem to believe that some of the other jurors manipulated or bullied Maddy into changing her vote. For these reasons, I feel that we shouldn’t condemn Maddy. On the other hand, I also have no wish to feel sorry for her, and I rather resent her attempts to get us to do so.
So thanks, Crazy, you answered my question: “How come some wealthy racist doesn’t hire Maddy”…
Done.
Dear Maddy aka Juror B-29,
Here is what you told the world with your vote to acquit the defendant and your subsequent interviews:
You told the world that you wanted to acquit, but “the law couldn’t prove it.” Evidence proves a crime, not “the law.” You told the world that you chose to let the defendant “get away with murder” rather than having the courage of your own convictions. You told the world that you asked the judge for clarification on the charges, but you did not have the patience or the integrity to wait for her answers. You told the world that you let yourself become a victim of peer pressure so you could go home. You told the world that Trayvon’s life wasn’t worth one more night in a hotel.
You told the world that you believe the defendant’s account of events even though he never took the stand to give his version of the killing, and was too much of a coward to undergo cross examination.
You told the world that you believe the defendant’s uncle with his strange story that he recognized the defendant’s screams on TV, and all the other “voice experts” put on by the defense.
You told the world that you do not believe Rachel Jentel, who gave a full account of her conversation with Trayvon leading up to the attack.
You told the world that you believe that Trayvon attacked the defendant, even though there was not one bit of forensic evidence to show that Trayvon ever even touched the defendant, much less attacked him.
You told the world that you are gullible enough to believe in a cartoon film put together by the defense for closing arguments.
You told the world that you believe it’s OK to kill black boys because they are scary.
That is your message to the world, Maddy, so if your life sucks I really could not care less. You are alive and Trayvon is dead. I hope that none of your 8 children ever come to a violent end, but if they do, I hope that you will remember when you were complicit in the culture of violence and racism.
I agree with Malisha above, this is not wrath. I have only contempt for her. Her life is of her own making. Just as she tried to escape blame for the verdict, she is trying to blame others for the misery that she had a hand in creating. She was not up to the challenge of serving on a high profile, “sequestered” (but not really) jury. I am not interested in hearing about how miserable she is. Her children are alive, Trayvon is dead and his killer walks free.
I feel bad for her. I feel worse for her children.
I want worse to happen to the other evil women who supported an evil murderer.
When do they get outted?
Because even racists like their help to have a modicum of smarts???
How come some wealthy racist doesn’t hire Maddy and get her family fixed up, in gratitude for her service?
B37 gets that honor. B29 was just a pawn and they’re expendable.
Maddy’s not really a “hold-out juror” either; she’s a “cave-in juror” if anything. Or a “roll-over juror.”
Exactly, remember there were 2 others who first voted for manslaughter and they also changed their minds so this juror wasn’t the roll over juror.
Agreed … definitely a caver, and quickly, too.
Ugh, only 16 hours to reach a verdict in a complicated case in which it takes weeks to survey all the evidence. Clearly this was all pushed and rushed along by B37.
I mostly blame the people who were running the show. To me, some of the major issues are:
The failure of Judge Nelson to include mention in the jury instructions that the rules concerning the handling of the self-defense issue change if the defendant was the initial aggressor.
The failure of the prosecution to explain the importance of various pieces of evidence and to “put the pieces together” for the jury.
The defense shamelessly pushing a bunch of lies. Did they seriously believe their story? Also, the same lies being pushed over and over, by various parties before the trial and by the defense during the trial. I know that the jurors said they hadn’t heard it before, but I’m not convinced that this is entirely true. I’m thinking about that most of them probably had heard various bits and pieces when they perhaps weren’t consciously paying attention, but it was still enough for some of the ideas to “stick”.
The racist “big scary black guy” hidden subtext.
She should write an online (free) book telling what happened blow by blow. She should admit that she was not smart enough to participate on the panel. Why didn’t she think about all of that when she was in the deliberation room? I hung a jury and suffered the consequences. I would do the same today if, after hearing all sides, I voted with my convictions. It is very obvious that you are dealing with a racist when you hear one talk. B37 was an unapologetic arrogant racist. B29 was a scaredy cat.
Amid the silly “we’ll always be together” bonding that often goes on among jurors, B37 was indeed an unapologetic arrogant racist, and B29 decided she’d rather throw in with B37’s grouies in order to “belong” …. for invitations to all those forthcoming cocktail and dinner parties so stupidly anticipated.
I believe her personal situation would have ended up the same even if she had stuck it out (heck, she might even be dead had she suck with what she believed). But it seems that if your life is going to end up crap either way, it may as well be because you stood up for what you believed in so you don’t have the extra baggage of having to carry around the fact that you didn’t on top of all that other.
Maddy would of been a fucking super hero to 100s of MILLIONS of young blk boys&men if she had stood her ground as the only person on that jury to stand up for Trayvon against the other stupid racist jurors!
All she would’ve had to do was come out and proudly announce it was HER, the one who hung jury because she would not accept the cold blooded murder of a kid after being stalked chased and shot point blank in the heart by a grown man with nothing but a bunch of self serving, unrepentant lies as his excuse!
Instead she wants pity but she also wants to “stand by her verdict” because that’s how it was read to her! she can’t understand why her kids are now suffering but said she’s suffering” as much as Sybrina because she cant sleep at night!”
But she could’ve been a hero.
*slow clap*
You just said it all, perfectly.
Oh, geez, insert earworm here:
♫ We don’t need another hero
We don’t need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond the thunderdome
So, what do we do with our lives
We leave only a mark
Will our story shine like a light
Or end in the dark
Give it all or nothing. ♫
The nerve of her saying she’s suffering as much as Sybrina Fulton! May that vicious nasty dishonest filthy comment never be forgotten by anybody as long as she lives! Can’t sleep at night? OK. Let her put on her hoodie and walk around white neighborhoods and take her damn chances in a world she helped to create.
This dopey woman has not run into stressful times because she served on a jury, or even because she stupidly failed to at least hang the jury on a verdict. Instead of quietly disappearing back into her previous life, she thought it would be cool to show her face all made up on TV and babble about how “George Zimmerman got away with murder.”
People on both sides didn’t cotton to that, and now she’s sniveling about all her financial woes just like Fogen’s parents. Did she mention how it was she lost her nursing home job? How about incompetence?
As for the marketing guy who wants to set her up with a call center gig, he’s gotten his share of publicity now, so don’t bet on that actually happening. She wouldn’t be able to hold that position either, given her level of stupidity, and how friendly do you think the fellow cubicle would be toward her? It’s time for her to head on back to Chicago.
Yep. Maddy has no knowledge of small town, southern culture. She now, however, has the experience.
i find it hard to care about ole maddy and her decision making process. i do however worry about all those mouths she is responsible for feeding (refer back to her decision making process) and the recent cuts to the SNAP program.
nursing homes are generally easy places to get hired simply because they are so awful and staff turnover is insane. if she has her NA license current, she should be able to find a job.
I saw some of her interviews for the media. I have yet to hear her say she thinks she made a mistake in her voting. No conviction in her heart that she did the right or wrong thing. Just poor pitiful me. If your job fired you because you were on the jury then hire a lawyer. Did you lose everything you own because you only got a penny or two for weeks of jury duty? Then you should have claimed a hardship with 8 kids and no means to feed or house them. And for God’s sake…if you had to sell your dining room table then make do with something else. On any trash day you could drive and find anything that resembles a table or vertical surface. But no… you go on TV and feed your kids on the floor…PLEASE! That was just for pity. Not feeling it.
She hasn’t done that because she believes that the law prevented them from finding the PIG guilty. Remember, it was “read to her”.
If someone read something to me that I had a question about and I still questioned the answer, I would make sure I found out the answer when I got off of jury duty. There is no judge sending back a no answer now. She can research on her own without bias to the response. So, she must still feel that 37 gave her the correct answer and she did the right thing. Good for her. She is the one sleeping with her own conscience. But don’t come crying to the world about being treated unfair.
My sentiment is two-fold:
1 – staiohneohg yhfione huvfheugn biiehthn
2 – B29 should see her eviction as a blessing to leave Seminole County
Okay a third (echoing Malisha) – In heartwarming, paraphrased words of Clark Gable’s character Rhett Butler, “Frankly, my dear, I too don’t give a damn.”
Can you translate your #1 statement, Medusausi?
If I did, I’d have to wash my mouth (and hands) with soap. lol
Oh, me too, but I never actually spelled the words out so I didn’t recognize them.
I second the emotion. 😈
I don’t feel sorry for her. She said on national television he got away with murder. But, wait she let him go… She knew he was guilty, but let him go anyway.
Frankly, my dears, I don’t give a damn.
Her life is in the toilet? She’s lucky someone like Fogen is not allowed to FLUSH.
Poor Poor Maddy, huh? Not. She has some damn nerve complaining, if you ask me. Reminds me:
Some people are born bad.
Some work hard to achieve badness.
Some have badness thrust upon them.
Who cares?
I think she was naive. She did not murder Trayvon.
She does not deserve this wrath just because she did not end up being the hero we had hoped for.
We’re not (most of us) expressing wrath. We’re saying we cannot be moved to pity her and care about her. That’s our privilege. Many people are dirt poor. She is dirt poor. I feel a lot worse for a lot of the other dirt-poor people than I feel for her. That’s all.
SHE’s going on TV and seeking attention. I don’t want to give it to her. Let her life be what it is; I don’t want her in my life and I won’t chip in a penny to help her out, that’s all.
What happened to her was bad? Worse things have happened to better people.
She was asked if with eight kids whether serving on a jury would pose problems or be a hardship. Like a ninny, she said “no.” At any economiclevel, caring for eight children can be a juggling issue when an extended sequesered jury duty is added to the mix., …at that juncture of denial, she should have been eliminated by the court for general stupidity.
Excellent post TO… During the voir dire process, I posted how I thought she was doing and saying anything to get on that jury… so this is the results…
However… I am CU at eliminated by the court for general stupidity…. LOL!!!
Didn’t she then reconsider but was not allowed to back out of jury duty?
I was once dirt poor and learned a valuable lesson. You have nothing to lose but your dignity, if you do not do what you feel is right.
And this is another subtext that runs through the entire affair.
I feel a large number of the whores for money that testified or supported George “the turd” feel that black people and their culture are a threat to property values.
F all of them.
This juror had a chance and blew it.
I second the not giving a dame…
My prayers are being answered… this is her misery and eventually comes her downfall. The same goes for every single person that participated in that farce of a trial.
If I have forever been changed, they also should feel the ripple effects of that “not guilty” verdict and putting a remorseless murder back on the streets.
Maddy was used as a “token” to tell America that the verdict was just. Black and Brown people were suppose to sigh and get over it because the only minority on the jury supported the verdict. WRONG!
Those following the trial shall not forget that a question came forth to clarify manslaughter, and the jury was asked for a specific question. The foreperson did not submit a specific question. What did that convey to Maddy? That her participation on the jury was ignored. She did not understand manslaughter and would not be allowed to understand it. The law had to be read to her by another juror so that Maddy would have to vote not guilty.
And, she caved in allowing herself to believe that she didn’t know as much as other jurors. They made her look stupid. I don’t respect her for that.
While I have compassion for her current problems, she needs a dose of reality to give her the strength to fight back. Maddy, you were used as a token. Sovereign citizens used you to promote their agenda to render laws against murder moot. Those who used you don’t care about your personal problems. They were already of the mindset that because of the color of your skin, that you deserve to live like you do now. They got what they wanted from you and could care less about the future of you and your family.
I agree, Xena. Maddy was used as a token and she shouldn’t not be weak – she should be strong and courageous for her family and fight back.
I fell Maddy is upset with herself for now NOT standing up to juror b37. Hindsight is always 20/20.
There’s enough blame to go around but I agree that the prosecution deserves most of it.
The judge made a couple of decisions regarding jury instructions that I believe were incorrect.
B37 had no business being on that jury. Her bigotry was apparent in voir dire. The prosecution accepted her. She did exactly what she telegraphed. “poor georgie meant well”
The defense’s examination of its witnesses and the cross examination of the state’s witnesses included a lot of information that shouldn’t have been admitted. It was b/c the prosecution did not object. e.g. the harassment of Rachel Jeantel, the hearsay of the gym owner, the opinions of non-experts, etc.
The prosecution didn’t prep its witnesses, presented witnesses that it should not (“rational thinking” thinking John comes to mind). They should have left him for the defense to present and then
They didn’t present witnesses they should have (“he told me he would shoot him” Jeremy). They shouldn’t have used fogen’s statements, thereby forcing him to take the stand. They presented jigsaw puzzle pieces for the jury to put together without a clue as to the picture. I could go on…..
As to B29, I think a big part of the problem is her conscience. She is having trouble reconciling what she should have done with what she did, thereby being crippled in being able to present a strong defense to her critics.
Left something out: the prosecution in cross examining “rational thinking” John should have impeached his testimony based on his conflicting statements.
You (understandably) left lots out. There are way too many prosecution screw ups to recall quickly and succinctly without considerable research.
What sticks in my mind, though, are the jury instructions. They went to great lengths to explain how to find CAC not guilty of everything, but I see nothing that clearly explains how to find CAC guilty of anything.
I agree. It seems like her conscience is bothering her because she acted against it. And as long as she keeps talking out of both sides of her mouth (hinting at injustice, while standing by and defending her not guilty vote), she will continue to suffer.
It would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic that Maddy’s own words about CAC apply equally to herself – that is, words to the effect that he’ll ultimately have to answer to God for what he’s done.
Until Maddy can honestly reconcile what she did with what she believes she should have done, she will suffer greatly. That’s my best guess.
The greater crime is not allowing the ME to fully explain his findings. Poor coaching on the part of the prosecution.
As I have said before, I think #B29 was influenced by #B37’s “reading” of “the law” that convinced #B29 that, by law, they could not convict PIG. I find it horrific that she is having to deal with this fallout by a mob mentality that wants to destroy her. I consider her yet another victim of PIG. I place all blame for the verdict on #B37, who stated that PIG “learned a good lesson”. B37 knows he was guilty, but decided he had learned from it. That enrages me, actually.
Yes, as events since then have shown, the “lesson” that he learned was that he could get away with almost anything.
Getting away with a murder, or at the very least, a manslaughter in which he made bad judgements and is culpable for, is about the ultimate in getting away with stuff.
I feel bad for her some days. I’m curious to know when the names will be released.
they waited 6months is CaseyAnthoney’s case. Nelson hasn’t actually said when she would but that seems to be the FL standard in HighProfile cases
J4T says I’m curious to know when the names will be released.
I’m willing to bet NEVER.