After just two hours of deliberation, jurors in the corruption trial of former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver are already showing signs of stress and confusion.
In one note, a juror said she had a "different" view from others, felt pressured and wanted to be excused.
In a second, a juror asked if there was any Assembly code of conduct prohibiting Silver's actions.
Lawyers and Manhattan U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni are discussing how to respond, just hours after jurors in the closely-watched trial began deliberations at 10:55 on Tuesday morning.
I dunno, I'm not a lawyer but it seems to me that signs of "stress and confusion" in a jury are not good for the prosecution.
I find the second note hopeful. From the Daily News: "'One of the jurors is having difficulty distinguishing whether or not exchanging state funds for something in return is illegal,' the note read, which requested a 'code of conduct or ethics' to shed light on the question." Maybe the judge just needs to clarify her instructions to that juror.
ReplyDeleteSilver's def getting off. Good for him. I'm really happy because there are no rules anymore. Who gives a shit. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteYes, I have always really liked Shelly. Maybe Preet should focus on Cuomo. Or maybe this was part of Preet's strategy anyway to get to Cuomo.
ReplyDeleteHere's to Shelly getting off!
He was the only one on our side. Since they're all dirty, I'd rather have one of them representing our interests.
ReplyDeleteNo way there is a conviction here. For everyone's info, this is what the manipulation of courts, juries, etc by those in power looks like: a "confused" jury, a jury with a lot of faux lack of knowledge, jumbled jurors where there is "division" immediately. A place where someone obviously signalling to a witness on the stand is blown off with a "do that again and I'll..." false-threat from a judge. Its all a big sloppy mess, which is the intent.....and the outcome will be NO CONVICTION. And if there were, the mess would also benefit the defendant for an appeal.
ReplyDeleteTHIS IS HOW SHIT WORKS FOR THOSE WITH POLITICAL AND FINANCIAL RESOURCES! Nobody asked who the guy signalling the witness was or further questioned him. Its a big mess. Its a wonderfully orchestrated and bought and paid for mess. Its why courts and all vestiges of civil society are shown to be fictions by those at tops of food chains. Its not like the mob didn't practice this art for like a century. We should all know better than to expect anything different.
And yeah, aside from it being further proof that Cuomo won't face a thing from any federal attorney, I could hardly care.
I bet this mean that they took a "straw poll" on one of the major charges--which is probably not a good way to begin deliberations--and it's 11-1 or 10-2--one way or the other.
ReplyDeleteI've read about a lot of hung juries getting to this point after a couple days but not after TWO hours. Maybe the long weekend will bring everyone back to their wits.
Its not about jurors coming to their wits. ITS RIGGED!
DeleteNow today its a little more sophisticated than right and simple jury-buying. But not by much. Now the energy goes into creating an orchestrated mess everywhere....during the actual trial, during deliberations, everywhere. Now, this kind of stuff is extensive and fairly well planned. Clear jury tampering as such isn't necessary when, during the jury picking phase, all kinds of work went in to getting the "right" jurors seated....alot of $$ paid to deeply investigate the supposedly name-sealed jury pool, etc. It was known who'd have confusion on what a politician's ethical boundaries were, etc. There was alot of work and money spent to orchestrate a giant mess. Messes, after all, tend to favor the side that is paying for them.
Old Preet is on a fools errand here in NY. Anyone who earnestly believes that such broad concepts as justice, legitimate and due process, and ethical behavior somehow apply to the top-most echelons of power within a state are fools. Why else have power unless it can elevate you above such middle-brow understandings and concepts? Organized crime and government are essentially the same thing. As long as civil society roughly functions, and that the basest of human instincts like racism, sexism, homophobia, etc are tempered in the process, who cares?
I just want VAM, privatization, common core, teacher-bashing, and all this shit to stop so I can resume my career with a little less fear and loathing. After that NYS can be run by all gangsters, I don't care. Fuck them.
Well gee, Anonymous 7:59pm, did it cross your mind that all of the shit that you would like to stop such as VAM, common core, teacher bashing etc is linked to a much bigger picture. All that stuff did not come about in a vacuum, it's those so called gangsters that caused it. So Fuck them, you don't care, is not going to fix the mess. You have to look at the forest not the trees.
DeleteNah....
DeleteVAM, Ed Reform, etc etc etc is all the product of hyper-EARNEST, pseudo-social reformers who are taking advantage of all pathways to privatize established in the full light of day by elected officials. Sure, they are bought and sold, but turns out its all legal. My point was that our elected officials and gangsters are barely discernible from each other. I don't think this is a revelation. I also don't think its particularly unique globally or historically. Those drawn to power are usually cut from the same cloth, be it legit or illegit.
Now, on the fix piece. Well, I don't think fixing our position and the problems we face as working teachers requires me or you or any of us to work towards having a less gangster-ish political culture. The blurry line between legit and illegit is hardly our issue. To fix our problems we don't need to "clean up" Albany or anywhere. A "clean" and earnest and super-above board and legit state or federal government is NO guarantee that ed reformers would go away or that VAM and all that would stop being a thing. In fact, a super-above board, legit, transparent government is a great breeding ground for data-centric, pseudo social reformer, efficiency-fetishizing ed reformers. So thats not our cause or mission.
Our only focus and goal should be how to counter those privatizing public space. Turns out that that fight doesn't require us cleaning up politics or whatever. It requires us organizing and grabbing the political power we have and forcing our voice to have the gravity it should. You know....union shit. Old school union people....like the hard folks from the 30s....they weren't so focused on trying to create a cleaner government. They were much more interested in making a noise that was louder than the others. Countering the power that existed rather than trying to clean it. Thats all.