Fiona Onasanya Retrial

[Spicerack]

Jury, surprisingly in my view, couldn't come to a majority decision.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/26/jury-fail-reach-verdict-case-labour-mp-fiona-onasanya1/

[dannyk13]

Not possible to comment without knowing what evidence the jury heard,

[youngmafbog]

As Danny says. What is reported is not always the full story.

[naomi24]

She is a proven liar and has admitted three charges of perverting the course of justice, I can’t imagine what the Jury’s problem was.

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/judge-accept-majority-verdict-trial-15458641

[Spicerack]

Just going on what was reported. I've never seen such a cut and dry case of guilty.

[naomi24]

Nor me, Spicerack.

[Spicerack]

I suspect something like the OJ case myself, Naomi.

[naomi24]

It's certainly a puzzle.

[emmie]

seems a strange decision, as Naomi says she a proven liar and has committed perjury, what was wrong with the jury i wonder.

[ToraToraTora]

I'd like more detail but surely this is binary, I mean she said she was not driving and tried to claimed some Russian bloke was driving, surely the CPS would have determined that he wasn't before embarking on this case. There must be some information that gave the jury doubt.

[youngmafbog]

Is a "Mr Loop hole" involved?

[emmie]

wasn't the Russian bloke out of the country at the time of the offence....

[Spicerack]

She left the NIP form at her mother's house because she knew she was in Parliament that day and couldn't have been driving.
Then her 'lovable rogue' of a brother, who she's very angry with, told lies on the form.
She didn't realise she had to fill the form in herself because she was busy, and racists. And wouldn't you know it, Parliament was shut that day, of all days.
She had several interviews with the police where she might have explained all this but hadn't thought of it then.

[New Judge]

Anyone who has sat through any sort of criminal trial will know that there is rarely anything that is "cut and dried". We only know what the papers have reported. We don't know what was said in court over the week or so that the case lasted. We don't know how strong the evidence for the prosecution was, we don't know if there were any legal problems with the admissability of that evidence, we don't know what defence she has put forward.

Having said that, juries are strange animals. I won't relate a tale involving a jury that I witnessed that demonstrates just that because it would not be proper on a public forum. But things are rarely as straightforward as they seem.

[Spicerack]

In case you're left in any doubt. The police tracked her 2 mobile phones to the vicinity of the speed camera when her car triggered it.
And she'd been to a meeting with her agent and others, in her car, at his house near the speed camera.

[sunny-dave]

Given that one juror had been discharged, the majority needed was 10-1 ... so it only needed two jurors to be unconvinced (for whatever reason) and there could be no verdict.

Unfortunately, I am far from surprised that the defendant's multiple 'get out of jail free' cards found some receptive ears.

[Barmaid]

I wasnt aware that she had admitted 3 charges of perverting the course of justice, although I knew her brother had. I cant help thinking his name should be "Festup".

Even so the Jury wouldnt be aware of that (normally) if she had admitted such charges.

[New Judge]

"The police tracked her 2 mobile phones to the vicinity of the speed camera when her car triggered it.
And she'd been to a meeting with her agent and others, in her car, at his house near the speed camera."

What you just explained in four lines probably took a day or two to adduce to a jury, spicey. Within that there's all sorts of scope for ambiguity, confusion and error. We simply don't know why two of the jury members remained unconvinced (in fact nobody - including the judge - does) and speculation will not help us learn.

[MWG14]

I wonder what sort of people served on this jury.

[sanmac]

MWG14, it would be interesting to know the racial-makeup of the jury.