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Liberty City thoughts

By David Oscar Markus

Let's assume this trial ends in a mistrial, like the trial before it did.

Well then SDFLA readers, should the government retry the case for a third time?

Doesn't two mistrials demonstrate that the government cannot prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt? When do we reach that point? After 5 hung juries? 10? I think 2 is the number....

What about bond? If there is a mistrial, and the government decides to proceed a third time, certainly the remaining six should receive bond. Pretrial detention for defendants who haven't been convicted after two trials can't be right.

The court appointed lawyers must be sweating. One of these long CJA trials is enough to cripple a practice, but two back-to-back is almost impossible to come back from. If a third trial were to start up right away, I'm not sure how these lawyers could keep their private practices up and running...

Full post as published by Southern District of Florida on April 13, 2008 (boomark / email).