this is the hidden Killers podcast with Tony brusi featuring retired FBI special agent Jennifer coffindaffer Karen Reed and the trial of Karen Reed well we're going back to that discussion because a lot of the jurors have come out and said wait a second here um we we did find her innocent not we never put it down on paper but we did unanimously in that uh in that Jury Room find her in on counts one and three count two being the manslaughter that they were hung up on so now the question is can they retry Caren Reed on all those counts if they want to because the judge declared a mistrial there was never a polling of the jury that's a questions since she's going back to the courtroom to see what's going to happen there and as of this recording uh that has not yet happen joining me to discuss Jennifer coffindaffer retired FBI special agent uh Jennifer what do you make of all of this and the possible paths forward for Karen Reed and this uh possible upcoming trial again Tony I do not believe that this is going to serve as a double jeopardy situation there was no verdict rendered I know jurors have come forward but again we haven't seen any official affidavits from jurors and so until that happens and even after that happens if it does happen we're not going to see any uh any change I don't believe we're going to forge on and this is why it's been decided at the Supreme Court level there's multiple cases that indeed unless an official jur or jury verdict is rendered it's not a verdict and this judge has already said there was no verdict why why was there no polling why was there there no option for them to to render those verdicts in the first place well there were options and they could have done that um but they didn't uh I don't know why I've always said whenever you're back in those uh jury rooms according to jurors they bargain and they negotiate so it could have gone something like this listen we'll vote you know she's not guilty on this but we want to get the guilty on this so in other words did they all agree to go with the no on the second degree murder in bargain for the manslaughter and then when three jurors held out on the manslaughter they said well forget it it's it's not going to be we're deadlocked we're not going to you know approve that we don't know if that's what happened all I know is that does happen is there a chance that we're going to see like in the Alec murdog case uh we obviously saw the jurors come back and it was for a different matter it was uh the possibility of jury tampering with the clerk of court but they all ended up going back into the courtroom to to talk about their experiences to see if there actually was a jury tampering there is there something here where where they could be called back in and and you could get affidavits from all of them saying yes this is what we we all thought um even though it's after the fact after the the uh verdict has been rendered of uh of a mistrial I don't think we will see that happen um you know and everyone who has purportedly come forward has wanted to do it under the veil of complete anonymity for obvious reasons this uh you know the people in this area and the individuals who are involved in this have been unbelievable uh there's outstanding jury tampering Char or excuse me harassment charges and there's outstanding charges uh you know concerning intimidation and it's clear that these jurors are indeed afraid to come forward and that's why judge kenon says listen we're going to seal up everything to do with their names now remember in the in the murdog case we saw something a little similar to this where his the defense attorneys went out and actually were knocking on doors and trying to get statements from the jurors and of course uh that didn't work either uh the problem is it's sort of like the football game's completely over everyone signed off on it and then in other words whoever won or no contest or end of play and then you go back and try to recreate it that will never happen and again there's case precedent uh there's been precedent where individuals in the courtroom have even tried to give a verbal verdict and unless everyone signs and unless a verdict is rendered it's not really rendered Tony yeah was it an was it an error on the part of the judge to not I guess you know cross all the t's and and Dot all the eyes or or or was this not even in that I mean did she cross all the teeth and Dot all the eyes could she have should she have pulled the jurors uh on this or or asked it a question in a little bit greater detail or I mean again these are they're lay people these are not attorneys so did they know that they they needed to communicate it in this way well first of all that's not the judge's job the judge's job is not to become a juror sure you know they're not supposed to be involved in deliberations or involved in anything like that once a verdict is rendered and you're asked so say ye all in some states uh you know a judge is allowed to PLL and say judge or you know juror one juror two to see if everyone agrees there was no verdict here and she made that very clear so while we don't know what the discussions were uh we know that the judge was told we're deadlocked we can't come up with an opinion and so for that reason it was declared a Mist trial and if you recall she tried her darnest to get a verdict out of these jurors and the the prosecution pushed hard if you look back who was sort of salivating at the mouth if you look at that footage was the defense team okay all right we'll take it so while it wasn't perfect for them it's really a quasi win uh whenever you don't get a guilty verdict for your client so you know they get a start with a clean slate again and you know they were the ones pushing to go forward and then I find all of this quite interesting they know the law in this area and I don't think it's going to be reversed Tony yeah want more of the podcast without the ads then hit 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