Virus-Panicked Jury Rushed Polygamist Case, Defense Says (1)

摘要

A fearful federal jury issued a "sham" verdict in less than eight hours because it feared deliberating during the coronavirus outbreak, according to a lawyer for a Los Angeles businessman convicted of leading a biofuel conspiracy with a Utah polygamist group.It may be the first instance of a U.S. defendant claiming that the coronavirus pandemic interfered with a criminal verdict. The outbreak has halted the murder trial of New York real-estate heir Robert Durst, led to a four-month delay in the trial of former Goldman Sachs banker Roger Ng and was cited in a trade-secrets case against Huawei Technologies Co.