Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

UPDATE (5:37PM, 12/15/15): That's it for today, folks. No verdict, and jury sent home for the night. Deliberations start up again in the morning.

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UPDATE (4:01PM, 12/15/15): In a shocking statement, trial Judge William Barry told the hung jury to "Compromise if you can do so without violence to your own moral judgement," according to reporting by ABC News.

Such a statement coming from a trial judge is shocking because "compromise verdicts" in criminal cases are anathema to American concepts of jurisprudence and due process.

Each juror is sworn to vote for a guilty verdict on a charge only if they honestly believe that each and every element of that charge has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

If they do not so honestly believe this to be the case for a given charge, they are sworn to vote not guilty on that charge. Period.

This lies at the core of the legal mandate that the defendant has the presumption of innocence.

There is no proper room for compromise in such a judicial framework.

While it is true that criminal trial jurors do from time to time arrive at so-called compromise verdicts, such instances are considered defects in the judicial system, not legitimate outcomes.

If ever there were grounds for reversal of any conviction, this is it.

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At 3:40PM the jury in the "Freddie Gray" trial of Baltimore Police Officer William Porter sent out a note to Judge Williams that they were deadlocked.

As is normal in such cases the Judge essentially just told them to try again. It's reported that he re-read the jury charges to them prior to sending them back into deliberations, also normal. There was no word on whether he also read them an Allen charge, named after the 1896 Supreme Court case in which they first approved the instruction (Allen v. United States, 164 US 492). The Allen charge is a jury instruction used specifically in such circumstances in which the jury reports they cannot arrive at a unanimous verdict. It essentially reminds the jury of all the resources and time that have been put into this trial, notes that another jury is unlikely to be better suited to reaching a verdict than they are, and tells them to get their act together, get back into the jury room, and come back with a verdict, darn it!

The defense counsel for Officer William Porter has moved for a mistrial after discovering that the Baltimore City Public Schools sent home a letter with students cautioning parents in which the CEO of the school system wrote:

I am very concerned about the possibility of civil disorders following announcements of the verdict.

That full letter is embedded below.

UPDATE (12/14/15, 5:39PM): Jurors dismissed for the day, back to deliberations at 8:30AM tomorrow. UPDATE (12/14/15, 5:22PM): Both prosecution and defense agree with Judge Williams that no additional legal definitions will be provided to the jury. UPDATE (12/14/15, 5:11PM): Jury asks for legal definitions of "evil motive," "bad faith" and "not honestly."  That doesn't bode well for a conviction.  Hard to get a unanimous jury verdict on a charge if the jurors aren't even sure they understand what the required elements mean. UPDATE (12/14/15, 5:09PM): Jury asks for transcripts of radio recordings and of Porter's interview. Those transcripts were never introduced into evidence, however, but merely used for demonstrative purposes.  Judge Williams declines to provide them.   Today the jury in the “Freddie Gray” trial of Baltimore Police Officer William Porter was instructed by Judge Barry Williams, both the prosecution and the defense made their closing arguments, and the jury began their deliberations.  Keep your eyes here for breaking news on a verdict. Nothing I saw today served to change my opinion that, legally speaking, the defense was in far the superior position, and that indeed it appears most likely that not only did Porter do nothing illegal, he did more than he need have. Of course juries are unpredictable. Officer Porter on trial for involuntary manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office, and reckless endangerment following the in-custody injury and later death of local community drug dealer Freddie Gray. Gray had suffered an 80% cleavage of his spinal cord while traveling in a police van after being arrested, from which injury he would die some days later. An additional five Baltimore Police Officers face similarly serious charges arising from the incident, all of whom are scheduled to stand trial in coming weeks. [caption id="attachment_125787" align="alignnone" width="600"] [Baltimore Police Officers charged in Freddie Gray Case - William Porter lower left][/caption]