US District Court Judge James A. Beaty Jr. excused a 12-member jury for the day in the Latin Kings racketeering trial in Winston-Salem.
Jury deliberations began on the afternoon of Nov. 16 for about an hour before the judge excused them for the weekend, and then continued for eight hours today. Beaty told the 12 jurors that considering the length of the trial it was not out of the ordinary that they have not reached a verdict. He reminded them that they have a duty to continue deliberating until they reach a verdict, that the verdict must be unanimous and that each must decide the case for themselves but only after listening to each other.
The jurors have requested the opportunity to review evidence, including a video of defendant Jorge Cornell’s arrest outside of Natty Greene’s in August 2009, rosters, financial information for a house owned by the grandmother of a Latin King that burned down, and mug shots.
Beaty told prosecutors to be ready to show the video at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning in court.
About a dozen people demonstrated in support of the six defendants outside of the federal building in the afternoon, holding aloft banners that read, “RICO is bullshit” and “Stop state repression; free the ALKQN.”
Winston-Salem police showed up on the scene and told the supporters to stop drumming, but otherwise allowed the demonstration to continue.
Eric Ginsburg contributed reporting to this article.
2 comments:
I personally feel that Jorge Cornell is innocent. I feel like the other defendants who didn't accept any deals are innocent as well.
Considering this is a racketeering case and in doing so would mean they were conspiring all of these acts for MONEY and to claim some kind of territory, here's what I don't get.... They were all broke!! Which is why they were always shacked up with someone or having to get JOBS! To even consider them a "gang" just seems like a joke to me. Jorge Cornell a criminal master mind? Now that's a great joke! Following this trial, it seems to me the government paid the people who were doing exactly what the Latin Kings were against! Did they not read their "handbook"?
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