Quote:
Originally Posted by Hartley  You're right Highwayman the judge didn't order the jury to find Cohen guilty, he just told the jury that Cohen's defense was irrelevant. Maybe instead of "ordered the jury" I should have wrote "strongly suggested to the jury not to consider Cohen's defense in their deliberating"
___
On appeal, Cohen asks this Court to consider the following six issues: (1) whether the Government was required to prove a "corrupt motive" in connection with the conspiracy in this case; (2) whether the district court properly instructed the jury to disregard the safe-harbor provision contained in § 1084(b); (3) whether Cohen "knowingly" violated § 1084; (4) whether the rule of lenity requires a reversal of Cohen's convictions; (5) whether the district court constructively amended Cohen's indictment in giving its jury instructions; and (6) whether the district court abused its discretion by denying Cohen's request to depose a foreign witness. We will address those issues in that order. |
Regardless of what the Judge said or the Jury heard or interpreted him to say, the important issue here is that it was NOT the Judge’s decision that rendered the verdict, it was the collective agreement of all members of the Jury…which is contrary to what this writing attempted to inference.
Often without realization Juries have the ultimate power in deciding what laws can/will be enforced, while the importance of the Jury selection process cannot be understated.
.