Inside the HLF Jury Deliberations

The headline charges "bullying" against those who thought the evidence supported a conviction, but that seems like whining to me. Jury duty is a civic obligation and if you're going to fold under someone's "criticism" and "attacks," you're sissy. Even if you're a woman, you're weak and have failed to do your duty.

Still, the article does highlight the fact that the juror so proud to have gotten terrorist associates off is a fuckin' prick.

Neal, a graphic artist, apparently felt the same way about others wasting his time. He was interviewed by Dallas radio and television stations within days of the trial and by the Dallas Morning News. Thus far, his assertions have provided the only detailed insider assessment about the prosecution case.

Neal made his disdain clear two days after the mistrial in an interview on Dallas radio station KRLD.

"A lot of the jurors couldn't even say words that had four syllables," Neal said on the Ernie and Jay show on KRLD 1080 AM. "They just picked the jury based on socio-economical reasons. A lot of these people are blue collar, you know, working UPS, working food, cafeteria cashier. You had people [from] secluded lifestyles. They had no idea of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. They had no idea about worldly affairs. To get them and you show them bombs and show them kids – that's not our lifestyle so we've got to vote them guilty because of that. That's the whole reason."

The Dallas Morning News noted Neal "also had difficulty calling Hamas a terrorist group. ‘Part of it does terrorist acts, but it's a political movement. It's an uprising.'"

He reinforced that assessment in the IPT interview, saying he read the Hamas charter twice during deliberations. "They haven't always been a bombing kind of group," he said.

Hamas' first actions involved shootings and stabbings. Its preamble to the charter includes this: "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."

So, to Neal, what is Hamas?

"It is marked as a terrorist organization. My personal viewpoint, I didn't know too much before. I see it as a political struggle. Our country was founded on a terrorist act. The Boston Tea Party wasn't a tea party, dude. It was a rebellion against the king's wrath. They fought back against an oppressive government."

Enjoy this quote from a pro-Hamas juror:

"If you're going by the evidence in this room," she recalls him snapping, "then you need to go home."

...which I take to mean that Neal and his asshole buddies were looking at "context" and "nuance" beyond the actual evidence presented in court, thus violating the rules of juror deliberation.

I'm pretty pissed at the people who buckled under this guy's "bullying" and signed what they say now is a false verdict.

Hey, jerkoffs? If you have to hang the jury, hang the fuckin' jury. Don't go along to get along and then whine about a "bully" in the jury room later on.

Thanks to CJ.

posted by Ace at 08:59 PM

| Access Comments