As we learn that Cleveland City Council, Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries and the Cleveland Police Department have dedicated their extensive resources to the persecution of Father Henry and shutting down St. Hermans home for the most disadvantaged Americans on Earth [1]... we should assess their past performance addressing crime in the most impoverished, lead poisoned, broken-down, polluted city in America... besides ignoring nearly a dozen rapes and murderers by a friend of Mayor Jackosn's family, for years [2]... today the Plain Dealer reports "Jurors so upset about case brought against 19-year-old that they will give the defendant their jury pay [1]".
Highlights:
Jurors are so convinced that a Cleveland teen should not have been charged with assaulting another teen that they've gone beyond acquitting him. A few are writing angry letters to police and intend to donate their jury pay to him.
Jurors said the case against McCloud on charges of kidnapping and felonious assault quickly evaporated in the courtroom of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Michael Astrab.
Most of the jury could not be reached for comment, but three members complained of a "sheer lack of evidence."
"He seemed like a decent kid who was falsely accused," Nagin said.
Boe said she will mail letters today to Cleveland Police Chief Michael McGrath and Fourth District Commander Deon McCaulley about the lack of a thorough investigation. Other jurors said they also will write to the police.
Last November, The Plain Dealer reported that Cuyahoga County Prosecutor William Mason had pursued criminal charges against hundreds of people [3]over the last 10 years with little or no evidence against them.
Knotek said nine out of 12 jurors voted at the start of deliberations that they did not believe an attack occurred. Knotek said she was "quite surprised" at the holes in the prosecution's case.
Jurors also complained of a lack of medical record of injuries from the attack, no testimony of a search for the gun or verification the victim had been let out of school early as he testified.
They questioned why the attacking teens did not take the victim's cell phone, iPod or money and said the victim could not identify the exact location where the attack took place, even though it would have happened in sight of his house.
Links:
[1] http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/02/jurors_so_upset_about_case_bro.html
[2] http://articles.cnn.com/2009-11-09/justice/cleveland.bodies_1_assault-charges-anthony-sowell-new-charges?_s=PM:CRIME
[3] http://www.cleveland.com/rule-29/index.ssf/2010/11/bill_masons_office_went_after.html