Twelve jurors have yet to render a verdict in the Latin Kings federal racketeering case, and were excused for lunch in the second full day of deliberations. They return at 1:45 p.m.
The jury began the day at 9 a.m. by watching a video made by Eric Ginsburg to document an incident in August 2009 when defendant Jorge Cornell was arrested by members of the Greensboro Police Department gang enforcement unit while campaigning for city council.
Before lunch, the jurors asked for clarification on whether the government’s burden of proof rests on establishing that each defendant participated in two racketeering acts or whether they merely agreed to participate in a racketeering enterprise in which two racketeering acts were committed.
US District Judge James A. Beaty told counsel for the government and defendants that “the court cannot provide the answer for the ultimate decision they must make,” and instead opted to read jury instructions for the racketeering count to the jury again.
The judge ruled that the jury may consider a Wal-Mart robbery as a racketeering act in support of the Latin Kings enterprise even though defendant Randolph Kilfoil already served a state sentence for the crime. He said that evidence that defendant Jorge Cornell used an EBT food stamps card that belonged to someone else does not rise to a racketeering act.
UPDATE, 5:37 p.m.: Judge Beaty excused jurors for the day, bringing to a close a second full day of deliberations without a verdict.
2 comments:
And to think that i had a lot of respect for the government..... what happen to do the crime do the time? the government has let the people that ACTUALLY committed the crimes WALK,,,, Jorge and the other guys facing Rico charges for crimes they didn't commit.....Something is screwed up with the system.
The JURY cant even understand whats going on in this case and they have been sitting listening for weeks....
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