A Washington, D.C., jury appears deadlocked in the cases of three people facing felony charges for destruction of property during protests on President Donald Trump’s inauguration day, HuffPost reports.
On Tuesday, the jury foreman told the judge that jurors were unable to reach a verdict and unlikely to change their views. The potential deadlock follows news last week that someone had written “Google jury nullification” in a bathroom stall, referring to the concept that a jury may return a not guilty verdict for a guilty defendant, if jurors believe the law is immoral or wrongly applied.
Dramatic moment as the second #J20 trial went to the jury.
A juror passed a note to the judge saying someone had written “Google jury nullification” in the bathroom stall.
She did. Then she told the other jurors what she read. And they talked about it.
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) May 31, 2018
The three defendants were among more than 200 people arrested in January of 2017 after protesters bashed in windows of a Starbucks in downtown D.C. Prosecutors charged dozens of people with felonies in connection with the damage in what have become known as the J20 trials. Yesterday, the same jury found one defendant not guilty of rioting charges, and, last week, a judge dismissed the charges against 10 other protesters because prosecutors withheld evidence.
Prosecutors have yet to convict any defendant at trial, though one defendant has taken a guilty plea.
