Chairman Conyers Deeply Troubled by FBI Juror Interviews in Cyril Wecht Mistrial

[RamboLiberal]

Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers released the following statement in response to reports today that the FBI is attempting to interview jurors in the Cyril Wecht mistrial:

I am deeply troubled by reports of FBI agents contacting former jurors who failed to convict Dr. Wecht. Whether reckless or intended, it is simply common sense that such contacts can have a chilling effect on future juries in this and other cases. When added to the troubling conduct of this prosecution, there is the appearance of a win at all costs mentality. The committee continues to investigate this matter.

FBI Contacts Jurors After Wecht Mistrial
WTAE TV - April 11, 2008

Two jurors in Dr. Cyril Wecht’s federal trial told WTAE Channel 4’s news exchange partner, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, that the FBI wants to talk with them.

U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab declared a mistrial after the Wecht jury said it was deadlocked on Tuesday. A new trial for the ex-Allegheny County coroner is scheduled for next month.

Two of the deadlocked jurors said the FBI called them this week and asked for interviews.

U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan’s office said it’s common for an investigating agency to call jurors when a case ends in a deadlock. Margaret Philbin, a representative for Buchanan, said the FBI was simply setting up appointments so prosecutors could discuss the case with the jurors.

http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=1280

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's Office in Pittsburgh tells the paper that prosecutors just wanted to chat about the case with the jurors, a "commonplace" practice. The FBI agents were simply setting up the appointments. It is true that it's commonplace for lawyers from both sides to speak to jurors after a trial to get feedback. But there are two important distinctions here.

First, prosecutors didn't seek to poll or speak to jurors before making their determination as to whether to retry the case. If they had, the jurors would have said that most of them were ready to vote to acquit. "That seemed to us to be vindictive," Dick Thornburgh, the former attorney general under President George H.W. Bush and a lawyer for Wecht, told me. "It's how have behaved the whole case." The jury foreman has even said that the prosecution seemed "politically driven." (See our rundowns of the case here and here.)

And second, using the FBI to contact jurors is far from commonplace (Jerry McDevitt, another of Wecht's attorneys, told me that the agent who'd contacted the jurors was not even the agent who had worked on the Wecht case). Thornburgh told me that it was "unprecedented" in his experience. A former federal prosecutor told the Tribune-Review that it was unusual. And a veteran defense attorney from the Pittsburgh area told the paper that he'd never heard of such a thing. And there's a reason:

"If I'm a prospective juror in the second trial, and I'm hearing stories that if I don't agree with the government that I might get calls from the FBI, that could have a very, very deleterious impact," said. "I would think that's very bothersome to have that happen."

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/fbi_agents_contacted_wecht_jur.php



Being discussed in Pittsburgh as a total outrage by Bushbot Repuke US Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan - she who went after and convicted Tommy Chong for selling bongs on the internet - yeah that made us all safer. :sarcasm:

[Wizard777]

1. After a jury is deadlocked and dismissed. What is there to talk about?

[msongs]

2. I am deeply troubled that Conyers has not actually DONE anything useful against the bush gang

except mouth off, posture, and pretend to be tough. where are the subpoenas, where are the contempt charges, where are the .... hell anything that is more than just phony hot air fraudulating on his part.

the democrats in congress are still afraid of the big bad bush and his dick, cheney.

Msongs

[lonestarnot]

4. And Ditto!

[jimshoes]

3. They certainly do get persnickety when

things don't quite go the way they had intended. Makes me feel good!

[Subdivisions]

5. "Conyers Deeply Troubled"?

That poor, poor man, bless his heart. How will he ever sleep tonight?