Mistrial In The Trena Persad Case

[BigFish]

Can anyone explain to me how 5 jurors with criminal records wind up on a jury for capital murder and no one knew about it? Now all I am hearing is how the jurors will be prosecuted for purjury but what I really want to know is why the State is not held accountable! When they send out the jury pool notifications to people, do they not do a complete background check to see if these folks they are sending them to have a criminal record? It seems to me that they should be, otherwise what is the point other than an incredible waste of time if they are ineligible to begin with....and because of the flaw in the system, a mistrial declared, hours and hours of preparation wasted not to mention all the money wasted and now they have to do it all over again! I find this lapse inexcusible and I blame the State from the folks that send out the notifications all the way up to the judge who sits on the case and everyone in between! This is a disgrace!

[Karl F]

Travesty, but like Howie Carr said, "But, wasn't that truly a jury of his "Peers"?"
surprised his defense attorney, isn't singing that song

[Mike P]

There's only one foolproof way to find out whether someone has a criminal record----submit his/her fingerprints to the registry that each state uses, and to NCIC. Fingerprints sent to NCIC are also forwarded to the FBI.

How many people you figure would be willing to report for jury duty if they knew they were gonna be fingerprinted and their prints would be kept on file? It's hard enough to get people who want to serve now.

[TheSpecialist]

They are talking about doind thorough background checks on all potential jurors first. Should have been done that way all along.

[BigFish]

So if I am a defense attorney what do I do right now? I go do a background check on all the jurors in all the cases I lost to see if any of them had a criminal record prior to them serving on the jury....if anything turns up like this, I file a motion of appeal or whatever they do and get my client a new trial!

[Mike P]

Originally posted by BigFish
So if I am a defense attorney what do I do right now? I go do a background check on all the jurors in all the cases I lost to see if any of them had a criminal record prior to them serving on the jury....if anything turns up like this, I file a motion of appeal or whatever they do and get my client a new trial!

So who's gonna pay the defense attorney to do all of this---the guy doing 20-40 or life without parole?

It's true that defense attorneys have big egos and hate losing. It's also even more true that they don't do much of anything on a criminal case without cash up front, 'cause guys in jail are notoriously bad at paying their debts. Plus, in order to win a new trial, you'd have to convince a judge that the jurors with a criminal record were somehow more sympathetic to the cops and prosecution. Not the easiest thing to do.

"The presumption of innocence commences with the payment of the retainer"

[iluvspots]

Originally posted by Mike P
It's true that defense attorneys have big egos and hate losing.

I hear that they are awful fishermen too.