If a juror is found guilty of perjury, would double jeopardy no longer apply to Zimmerman?

[Gravitycollapse]

If it was revealed through investigation that one or more jurors lied under oath or fraudulently manipulated the verdict, would it be possible to retry Zimmerman? Or is an acquittal always subject to double jeopardy?

[enough]

1. The only person who could be tried would be the juror, for perjury. (nt)

[hlthe2b]

2. My understanding is that it is not impossible (though very very rare/unlikely) to declare a mistrial

--even after the fact and potentially retry if the jury was found to be grotesquely manipulated/corrupted.

My guess is that, even if that were the case, Z would probably "skate" in terms of retrial for state charges and remain unscathed--unless the DOJ decided to take him on for civil rights violations.

More likely they'd spend their resources going after the juror and/or whoever was involved.

[PoliticAverse]

3. No Zimmerman cannot be retried by the State of Florida in such a case.

The juror however might be subject to criminal action.

[hlthe2b]

7. In the event of fraud, a mistrial can be declared and retried...

Retrial after acquittal
Fraud

If the earlier trial is a fraud, double jeopardy will not prohibit a new trial because the party acquitted has prevented themselves from being placed into "jeopardy" to begin with.[10]

10. Harry Aleman v. Judges of Circuit Court, Cook County, 138 F.3d 302 (7th Cir. 1998)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Jeopardy_Clause (even though this is Wiki, I do believe it to be correct)

[nsd]

10. That is only true if the "party" (i.e. Zimmerman) was involved in the fraud.

Bad conduct by a juror acting independently does not qualify.

[premium]

11. Exactly,

that's the only exception, and I can confidently say that Zimmerman wasn't involved in any fraud as far as jury misconduct.

[reusrename]

32. Because you looked into his eyes and saw his soul?

I wouldn't put anything past his attys.

[premium]

33. No,

because I used my common sense, something that's woefully lacking around here.

[mzmolly]

17. Isn't his entire defense a

fraud?

[hlthe2b]

29. Aware, but responding to the "ABSOLUTE" statement that no acquitted defendant can be retried...

Almost never, but not never.

[PoliticAverse]

12. That was a case in which the defendant bribed the judge...

See: https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/138/138.F3d.302.97-2479.html

Note the language: 'because the party acquitted has prevented themselves from being placed into "jeopardy" to begin with.'

In question here is conduct of a juror lying on their questionnaire.

[hlthe2b]

30. was responding to the "ABSOLUTE" statement that no acquitted defendant can be retried...

Almost never, but NOT never.

[LisaL]

28. That's fraud.

Which means defendant would have to bribe the juror or something like that.

[hlthe2b]

31. was responding to the "ABSOLUTE" statement that no acquitted defendant can be retried...

Almost never, but not "never"

[dipsydoodle]

4. In what way can a juror be guilty of perjury ?

.

[Gravitycollapse]

5. Failing to answer, honestly, the questions asked when deciding the jury.

Or knowingly failing to reveal any sort of personal connection to the case that could lead to a conflict of interest.

[marions ghost]

23. Perjury in courts is commonplace

and often overlooked --unless it can be proven to have affected the outcome, I doubt it.

[Bluenorthwest]

26. Yeah, no one gets in trouble for perjury, just ask Bill Clinton!

nt

[davidn3600]

20. Jury questionaire says "under penalty of perjury all information is correct" and makes you sign it

Although such things would be very rarely prosecuted unless the lie is blatant to deceive and obstruct justice in a corrupt manner.

I mean you wont be prosecuted if they ask you how long have you lived at an address and you put 10 years instead of 15. That's trivial. It would have be a serious enough lie that caused intentional harm to the system.

[premium]

6. Kinda grasping at straws aren't you?

It sounds like you're desperately grasping for anything to overturn the verdict.
But, to answer your question, it's theoretically possible, but practically? Not going to happen.
Very, very rarely will an appellate court overturn a not guilty verdict and order a new trial.
Don't pin your hopes on this theory.

[Spazito]

8. A verdict can be overturned due to jury misconduct or prosecutorial misconduct...

usually it happens through an appeal by the defense after a guilty verdict. It is VERY rare, I know of one case, where a verdict of acquittal was overturned due to jury misconduct and the case was more complicated because of the multiple charges.

The standard is set exceedingly high and it would have to be proven there was NO way in which the jury could have reached their verdict fairly due to the misconduct. One juror committing perjury would not result in an overturning of the verdict and a retrial when the defendant had been acquitted, there would be a slightly better chance of a retrial if the defendant had been convicted.

Here is the link to the one case I found of it happening where the defendant had been acquitted on one of two charges and the jury deadlocked on the second and, through appeal, the State won the right of retrial on both charges. It was in West Virginia:

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/wv-supreme-court-of-appeals/1520981.html

[pnwmom]

13. From my reading of that case, double jeopardy still applies

to the charge of conspiracy to commit murder, for which the defendant had been acquitted. But they allowed the related charge of murder, on which the jury had dead-locked, to be retried.

The defense had argued that if there was no conspiracy, and double jeopardy applied on that count, then they shouldn't have been able to charge him with murder again either. But the Court didn't accept that argument.

[Spazito]

19. The court ruled, because of the jury 'confusion' it was unable to determine which issue...

the conspiracy to commit murder or the murder was actually decided by the jury, it was unable to to rule on which should be precluded as a component of double jeopardy hence there was no double jeopardy afforded.

"Following full briefing and argument, the trial court denied Mr. Taylor's motion. The trial court agreed with Mr. Taylor that his “acquittal of conspiracy leads to issue preclusion as a component of double jeopardy,” but that issue preclusion need not result in a complete bar to further prosecution on any theory. In concluding that Mr. Taylor's motion should be denied, the trial court held that it was

․ unable to determine which issue [whether Mr. Taylor was part of a conspiracy or whether Mr. Taylor had shot and killed the decedent as alleged] was necessarily decided in Mr. Taylor's favor by the jury in its verdict of acquittal of the conspiracy charge against him and, accordingly, which issue should be precluded in Mr. Taylor's impending trial as a component of double jeopardy."

[pnwmom]

21. In any case, it's not a blow against double jeopardy in general and would have no bearing

on Zimmerman's situation.

[Spazito]

22. It seems my post was not clear, I thought I had made it clear it was to give an...

example where it had happened while also making clear the rarity of it and the complexity of this case relative to the Zimmerman case due to the multiple charges. Jury confusion was the basis of the State's argument resulting in the retrial of both charges in the West Virginia case which, if Juror B39 was factual when she stated, in her interview, the jury was confused by the manslaughter instructions, one could say there is similarity in that aspect.

I hope this has clarified what it seems I didn't make clear in my first post.

[pnwmom]

9. There are no exceptions to double jeopardy, which is designed to protect all of us

from malicious prosecutors.

[PoliticAverse]

14. There may be an exception if the defendant's conduct prevented an honest trial from occuring...

such as by bribing the judge. See:

https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/138/138.F3d.302.97-2479.html

[pnwmom]

15. Maybe so. n/t

[premium]

16. Correct,

it would have to be direct involvement of the defendant to trigger an overturning of an acquittal and the order of a new trial.

[alcibiades_mystery]

18. The trial is over...no re-do, no do over, there will not be a federal prosecution

Dude got away with murder, plain and simple.

It's over.

Done.

[Hoyt]

24. Yep. Concentrate on preventing the next bigot with a gun.

[alcibiades_mystery]

25. I'm for a mourning and fuck you period, including a general shunning of Z's racist supporters

14-21 days should suffice for the first, forever for the second.

But yes, the goal is to make this destroy their shitty racist culture, and stop the next bigot targeting yet another young black male.

[LisaL]

27. Why wouldn't double jeopardy apply to Zimmerman?

If he had nothing to do with juror being deceptive, double jeopardy still applies.