WACO – 54th Criminal District Court – The jury foreman told Judge Matt Johnson that some of the jurors are refusing to consider the evidence in the remaining two charges against Dallas Bandido Jake Carrizal they are to consider as to his guilt or innocence.
He is charged in conspiracy statutes, under the law of parties, for actions of persons he might not even know, but who were involved in what jurors must find is a criminal organization operating in collusion that led to the deaths of 9 and the wounding of 20 men.
They say they are hopelessly deadlocked.
The judge applied the Allen Charge, called the “dynamite charge,” in which a jury is instructed to continue their deliberations.
The charge stems from a 19th century Arkansas murder case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896.
If in their deliberations, jurors consider themselves hopelessly deadlocked, they may be charged to continue their efforts in words similar to this model Allen Charge found in a manual of jury instructions.
“As jurors, you have a duty to discuss the case with one another and to deliberate in an effort to reach a unanimous verdict if each of you can do so without violating your individual judgment and conscience. Each of you must decide the case for yourself, but only after you consider the evidence impartially with your fellow jurors. During your deliberations, you should not hesitate to reexamine your own views and change your opinion if you become persuaded that it is wrong. However, you should not change an honest belief as to the weight or effect of the evidence solely because of the opinions of your fellow jurors or for the mere purpose of returning a verdict.
“All of you are equally honest and conscientious jurors who have heard the same evidence. All of you share an equal desire to arrive at a verdict. Each of you should ask yourself whether you should question the correctness of your present position.”
Judge Matt Johnson urged the jurors to continue their deliberations in a similar written instruction hand delivered to them by the bailiff following a brief hearing.
In that hearing, defense counsel Casie Gotro objected to the entry of the Allen Charge. The judge overruled her objection.
Jurors have just completed the fourth hour of their deliberations on their second day considering the three charges as to the facts as they understand them.
The judge is the interpreter of the law; jurors are the fabled finders of fact referred to in statutory parlance as “a reasonable man,” time and again.
So mote it be.
- The Legendary