Quote:
Originally Posted by UVA17
But is convicting the defendant of a lesser charge something that is always on the table? I'm thinking of the Louise Woodward trial. If I recall correctly, her legal team asked that the jury not be given the option of convicting her of manslaughter. The jury's only options were to convict or acquit her of murder.
The jury ended up convicting her of murder (although the judge later vacated the verdict) but individual jurors who were interviewed afterward said they would have gone with manslaughter had it been an option.
At least that's what I remember my APGOPO teacher telling us a couple of years ago.
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If it was not allowed for the George Zimmerman trial, it would not have been permitted as part of the jury's deliberation. It was allowed, permitted, and failed. The failure was a mixture of evidence and the jury's clarification that manslaughter in Florida is not the lesser charge carrying a lighter sentence that it is in some states.
Signed,
A Mad Black Woman
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