Really? Seen a lot of cases where parties filed motions for curative instructions based on judicial error, have you? I haven’t. Sat through a fuckload of criminal trials, too.
Judge must have agreed, since he granted them. Even he realized he’d overstepped. Lots of former US attorneys who had tried cases in front of him also agreed.
I’ll allow he seemed to settle down with his antics quite a lot after the prosecutors yanked his leash.
I never thought he was actively working to throw the case to the defense. He just enjoys fucking with people. He strikes me as one of those judges who’s a little past his “use-by” date. Probably should have taken retirement more than a few years ago, but nothing in retirement sounds more fun than playing in the little fiefdom he now occupies on the T. S. Ellis Show. I knew more than a few of those.
septimus, re the Manafort verdict, the jury may hang on a few of the charges, namely the 4 counts of bank fraud. The path to Manafort’s conviction on those charges is a little more iffy because the president of the bank, Stephen Calk, appears to have entered into a quid pro quo arrangement with Manafort to take a job inside the Trump administration in exchange for the 16 million dollars’ worth of loans Manafort received. So there is some question about who actually committed the fraud: Manafort or Calk? Personally, I think Manfort’s intent to defraud is clear, but the jury may see it in a different way.
Other than that, the prosecution’s case is as strong as they get, the judge’s rulings and instructions (if not his open court commentary) were sound and if the jury follows their instructions, they should have no problem in rendering guilty verdicts.
But I will mention that in my experience, the primary area where trials go off the rails is due to juror misconduct. Sometimes a juror wants to “send a message.” More often, the jury is trying hard to do its job, but the complexity of the trial outstrips their ability to understand their role. Lastly, the “CFI effect” is a real thing.
Jurors almost always try very hard to do their job honorably and well. I hope this is such a case. That said, the kerfuffle on the day before closing arguments is likely a juror misconduct issue. Let’s hope the judge made the correct ruling to let the trial go forward without replacing a juror (if it was only one juror). This will surely be an issue on appeal. Saw that happen more than once, too – along with remands for retrial from the higher court.
Not something I bet on, I’m afraid. Sometimes jury’s verdicts made me wonder if we even sat through the same trial.
