You have to wonder whether the jurors would have talked if they knew what was brewing regarding alleged communications with a jury member and another person not on the jury. After this, I bet our jurors in future trials will be very reluctant to talk at all after the trial.
I hope this is resolved quickly for everyone.
I hope they are relunctant to talk during the trial. Have any of the jurors talked about it at all?
This is the only juror interview I've seen:
http://insession.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/07/nc-v-young-juror-justice-was-served/
There are a couple of additional interviews here:
http://www.wral.com/specialreports/michelleyoung/story/10822718/
Thanks happy2binNC! And I found another one here, so that makes 4 jurors on video now:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2012/03/06/spr-jason-young-juror.hln
The only issue being investigated by the SBI is if any juror communicated to someone outside the jury during their deliberations, as claimed by a friend of a hairdresser of a juror on Facebook.
The jurors' arrival at their verdict is not under investigation, though their comments are being publicly attacked on some mainstream and social media sites.
Another poster said a woman "met a fellow on the jury one evening and he talked about the trial the whole time." The poster said she told him "he should not speak of the trial[.] He said he was unbiased..."
I was under the impression that besides the issue of the juror allegedly passing along deliberation status updates to a gossipy hairdresser friend, there was another juror that was possibly doing something wrong as well.
I didn't want to mention this 2nd juror until I remembreed where I read it, so I could provide you guys with the link:
Article in the Raleigh News & Observer
Their comments certainly have been attacked, and deservedly so. when the judge tells you that you that "the defendant's decision not to answer questions by law enforcement officers during the criminal investigation may not be considered against him as evidence of guilt to the pending charge." and you go on TV and say that one of the main reasons you convicted him was because of "the fact that he didn't talk," then those of us who believe in a justice system are going to attack those comments.
I know that police shows and redneck folklore have put the idea in people's heads that "if you hire an attorney, then you have something to hide." People seem to forget that it's our constitutional right, and EVEN THE COPS get attorneys when they're being looked at for a crime -- they only imply that guilty people hire lawyers when they're trying to get a statement, because unless they have PC to arrest, you're walking out the door if you ask for a lawyer. It's an investigative tool, and a pawn in the game of cop -vs- suspect... but for some reason, people treat it like it's gospel, even when a judge says not to.
OK - BACK ON TRACK
I've seen allegations against two of the jurors, definitely not just the one. BUt, like most people have been stating, the SBI will be able to get the issue of texts and phone calls pretty quickly. Tracking down their physical movements and talking to the people they spoke with will take longer and be more difficult. I only have two hopes - that they actually do a THOROUGH investigation on both parts, and that they provide the public with their investigative report.
I emailed the SBI and provided them with the articles, and also the full names and facebook pages of the people quoted in those articles saying that they witnessed a juror speaking about the trial in public.
I have no idea if they'll even pay attention to it, but the information is there if they want it... Even if it is made up, it won't take long to find the truth out -- so I really hope they at least talk to all the jurors and all the people who claimed to have seen jurors acting inappropriately.
After the public shaming that the SBI got when their crime lab was under investigation, I'd imagine that they will be taking this very seriously.
The judge had already included the facebook postings in his request to the SBI, so they have those already. I highly doubt the SBI would relay on anything in the articles, but would instead do their own questioning of jurors.
Thanks for the article. I am puzzled by her statement here in this article that implies JY's silence was not a factor. Her second television interview said his silence was a factor. Sorry i this is the wrong forum to mention it, but I am curious about that.