• WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    Assuming the trial results in a hung jury the state can refile the case over and over again - but if the outcome isn’t viewed as a fluke then it’s just a huge waste of money.

    I’ll elaborate on this. In order to actually be acquitted, ie found not guilty, the jury has to unanimously vote him “not guilty.” A hung jury is if that jury cannot come to a unanimous decision.

    In a case like this, if we get a hung jury, the prosecution isn’t likely to let it go. It’s too high profile of a case. What tends to happen in cases this high profile is that the prosecution tries again, but with a lesser set of charges.

    So here they’re trying murder one. If that results in a hung jury for all the charges, then they will try again. Next time, they charge him with murder two. If that results in a hung jury, they’ll charge him with manslaughter.

    Eventually, the charges they’re considering get low enough that the defendant will likely just take a plea deal for a lesser charge. Maybe Luigi takes a plea deal for 2nd degree manslaughter, or whatever the equivalent is in NY. At that point he would likely already have been in prison for years, and he might just be let off with time served.

    I don’t know how likely that scenario is, but that’s what would probably happen if his trials just kept resulting in hung juries. Prosecutors rarely try defendants on the exact same set of charges. If they got a hung jury, they know they were probably over-reaching on the previous set. So each time they dial it back and hope to get the guy on something.