Brown supporter trial - verdict and sentencing

[Cobalt Shiva]

The jury may have gotten hung on Reno's charges because he comes across as being frequently outwitted by inanimate objects . . .

[webhick]

The jury may have gotten hung on Reno's charges because he comes across as being frequently outwitted by inanimate objects . . .

Or perhaps during testimony, one of the jurors was playing with one of those laser pet toys and Reno got distracted.

[LDE]

Demo:

I flew home on Sat morning. It was cold and raining there.

Say, as a former New Englander it's been sad and frustrating to see everybody dissing the Granite State throughout this thing.

When I lived in Massachusetts we referred to New Hampshire as God's Country.

I admit the food might not be any better than in Central Florida. Which brings me to my next question, from here in the land of good eating and bad government:

I don't suppose you'll be attending Reno's old man's trial in Georgetown, Texas, will you?

I wasn't planning to, either, but for a chance to meet Demo in person I'd defnitely take time off from work to do it. It's certainly close enough. And I'd be happy to buy you an enchilada platter and a top-shelf 'rita.

[webhick]

Say, as a former New Englander it's been sad and frustrating to see everybody dissing the Granite State throughout this thing.

As a lifelong New Englander, I love watching out-of-staters marvel at our specialness. It's funny. Like watching a squirrel with a paintball gun.

When I lived in Massachusetts we referred to New Hampshire as God's Country.

You forgot to add "because there's no sales tax." I'm onto you

[LDE]

And I'm into you ...

Well, if you had to look at a bunch of Texas every time you commuted 40 miles to work, you'd really appreciate both the New Hampshire topography and the relative lack of ugly construction. (Yeah, there's Nashua. Now imagine that as far as the eye can see.) This place has its good points, but it's not much to look at.

Actually the village where I live resembles Plaistow, NH, if you've ever been there. (Kinda flat, but not totally, in both places. Small farms, old but not especially nice houses, lots of animals, a few orchards. Up there it's apples, here it's pecans.) And this is one of the prettiest parts of Texas. I mean, with so much land, there have to be a few attractive places. But on the average, New Hampshire is awfully nice even though I'm really partial to Vermont, upstate New York, and coastal Maine.

I've camped several summers (for a week's vacation) at the Dolly Copp National Forest near the Canadian border. You can't tell me that isn't a nice locale.

As for the sales tax angle, yep, I once drove 40 miles from Malden, MA to Nashua, NH to buy a P.A. head, which, in fact, I still own and use, some 20 years and four or five bands later. I could've gotten it locally, but I saved the sales tax by making the drive. And then there were the beer runs, when MA didn't sell any alcohol on Sunday (no longer true, I hear).

Down here, there's no income tax but the sales tax is a bitch. Where I live it's 6.75% but there's little retail so I usually wind up paying Austin's 8.25%. Worse, I have a small business besides my 40-hour-a-week job for a large institution, and I have to figure ridiculous sales-tax computations for tiny amounts of money, such as, out of the $2.33 that I have to assess on the Web site I developed for a business located in Travis County (80% x 8.25%, and based on where the client is located, not where I did the work), how many cents go to the county's general fund, how many to the school district, and how many to the transit authority.

My business doesn't make enough for me to hire an accountant, so I do it all myself. Otherwise I'd hire you ...

[ErsatzAnatchist]

Great article from Scoop.

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs ... ate=single

Gonzalez's outburst

Lawyers for Gonzalez and the government met in a room adjoining the courtroom for more than half an hour following the reading of the verdicts. After their conference, they met with Singal in his chambers. The judge later instructed the jury to keep deliberating.

Just before the jury left the room, Gonzalez yelled a message to them.

"Jury nullification is your right," he said. A second statement was difficult to hear.

Singal called the parties back into his chambers after the outburst.

Gonzalez was not the only person to speak out of turn in the courtroom yesterday. Joe Haas, a Gilmanton Iron Works man who has been following the case closely and providing legal advice to the defendants, stood up just before the jury came in to issue its verdicts. Wearing a tweed blazer and a brown hat, and surrounded by marshals, Haas yelled "point of order," and Singal ordered him removed from the courtroom. Chief Deputy Marshal Gary Dimartino said later that Haas had not been arrested, just escorted from the building.

The jury will continue deliberating on Gonzalez's case today.

Apparently Reno thinks this may be a jury nullification case. I think the exact opposite is true. Reno's early departure and his testimony may have caused doubt in the mind of at least one juror.

Maybe Reno will get retried with Ed and Elaine.

[Dezcad]

Apparently Reno thinks this may be a jury nullification case. I think the exact opposite is true. Reno's early departure and his testimony may have caused doubt in the mind of at least one juror.

I agree and would add that the character witnesses for Reno may have also planted a seed of doubt.

[wserra]

That's exactly the thing that dumbass pseudo-patriots don't get: a defendant is far more likely to be hurt by a jury that nullifies than helped. It takes a certain type of delusion to believe that a jury is more likely to say, "I don't care what the law is because I believe that the defendant is a freedom fighter" than to say, "I don't care what the law is because I believe that the defendant is a scumbag". If it has any effect at all, the likely result of Gonzalez' outburst about nullification is to convince a juror that, even though the government may not have dotted all the "i"s and crossed all the "t"s, his son is a dangerous guy who should be removed from the streets.

[LPC]

Maybe Reno will get retried with Ed and Elaine.

That might be to Reno's advantage.

Ed was obviously the leader in all this craziness, so see the evidence that Ed was the force behind gathering firearms and explosives might make Reno look like an innocent bystander by comparison.

Also, Ed is such a jerk that, if he took the stand and was asked questions about Reno, he's likely to say something demeaning or disparaging about him, which once more reinforces the idea that Reno wasn't ever really part of the "in crowd."

So, assuming that the hung jury continues, it wouldn't surprise me if the government either retries Reno alone, or doesn't retry him at all.

[Demosthenes]

There are plenty of other co-conspirators in this case, and the government can simply toss Reno's hung jury counts in with those cases. I doubt that Anthony Sciarrone, Rob Jacobs, Jim Hobbs, Bill Miller, and so on are feeling groovy right now.

[darling]

Just before the jury left the room, Gonzalez yelled a message to them.

"Jury nullification is your right," he said. A second statement was difficult to hear.

What are the consequences for that?
Contempt? Mistrial? Slap-on-the-wrist?

I guess what I'm asking, would yelling that out do more harm-than-good?

[Cobalt Shiva]

Just before the jury left the room, Gonzalez yelled a message to them.

"Jury nullification is your right," he said. A second statement was difficult to hear.

What are the consequences for that?
Contempt? Mistrial? Slap-on-the-wrist?

I guess what I'm asking, would yelling that out do more harm-than-good?

If I were a juror on such a case, I would ask myself why one of the guy's supporters wants me to engage in jury nullification.

ANSWER: Because he knows that the guy is guilty.

I would then vote to convict with a clean conscience.

[Dezcad]

Just before the jury left the room, Gonzalez yelled a message to them.

"Jury nullification is your right," he said. A second statement was difficult to hear.

What are the consequences for that?
Contempt? Mistrial? Slap-on-the-wrist?

I guess what I'm asking, would yelling that out do more harm-than-good?

If I were a juror on such a case, I would ask myself why one of the guy's supporters wants me to engage in jury nullification.

ANSWER: Because he knows that the guy is guilty.

I would then vote to convict with a clean conscience.

It was actually the defendant himself who said this about jury nullificayion, giving even more support to your argument.

[Dezcad]

Tiny tacticl victory and big strategic error. New england Yankees probably don't appreciate out of town non-Yankees (especially Southern or Texan non-Yankees) causing trouble, getting involved in local matters and trying to tell them what to do.

Just a W.A.G. and I could be wrong.

We prefer the term New england patriots (esp. us Bostonians and Red Sox fans)

[Scoop]

Reno was found guilty on one of the conspiracy counts and accessory after the fact. The jury hung on the other two counts and the judge declared a mistrial.

In other news, it's an absolutely gorgeous day here in New Hampshire!

[Imalawman]

Reno was found guilty on one of the conspiracy counts and accessory after the fact. The jury hung on the other two counts and the judge declared a mistrial.

It seems to me that the Defendants really benefited from having a lawyer in this case. For Riley, it prevented him from being sanctioned or being held in contempt. Jason it was the explosives charge. Reno, it was two charges. Just goes to show that when you actually get smart and play by the rules, you can avoid getting yourself into a bigger mess than you would have otherwise.

[ErsatzAnatchist]

Reno was found guilty on one of the conspiracy counts and accessory after the fact. The jury hung on the other two counts and the judge declared a mistrial.

It seems to me that the Defendants really benefited from having a lawyer in this case. For Riley, it prevented him from being sanctioned or being held in contempt. Jason it was the explosives charge. Reno, it was two charges. Just goes to show that when you actually get smart and play by the rules, you can avoid getting yourself into a bigger mess than you would have otherwise.

For Riley, none of that would have mattered. Being held in contempt or sanctioned means nothing to someone who is facing the amount of time behind bars that he is facing. Danny needed to lawyer up much earlier and try to plea out.

[Dezcad]

Reno was found guilty on one of the conspiracy counts and accessory after the fact. The jury hung on the other two counts and the judge declared a mistrial.

From another forum, it appears the Meter has incomplete information:

NEWS FROM RENO!!!!!
just got word from Reno ANOTHER HUNG JURY.... JUDGE DECLARED A MISTRIAL..... more info to come when Reno calls back

[LPC]

Reno was found guilty on one of the conspiracy counts and accessory after the fact. The jury hung on the other two counts and the judge declared a mistrial.

If the government decides not to retry him on the other two counts (which seems entirely possible to me), could the judge nevertheless take the possession of weapons into account in sentencing?

Reno admitted carrying around a gun while at the Browns, so it wasn't exactly a disputed fact.

[Cobalt Shiva]

If the government decides not to retry him on the other two counts (which seems entirely possible to me), could the judge nevertheless take the possession of weapons into account in sentencing?

Yes.