A federal jury has acquitted Bobby Nunez, who was charged with stealing government property by towing an immigration agent’s vehicle during the arrest of a TikTok influencer in downtown L.A.

A federal jury has acquitted Bobby Nunez, who was charged with stealing government property by towing an immigration agent’s vehicle during the arrest of a TikTok influencer in downtown L.A.

  • Manjushri@piefed.socialEnglish
    5·
    2 days ago

    Maybe an ad campaign would move the needle, but there are a lot of stupid, selfish, people out there ready to lick the boots.

    True. But grand juries are different from criminal trials. Federal criminal convictions, as well as state criminal convictions since 2020, require that the jury verdict must be unanimous. That means one hold out can prevent a conviction for something like weed possession.

    State courts have required unanimous verdicts since 2020. Before that year, nearly all states followed the federal criminal trial procedure. Two states—Oregon and Louisiana—allowed non-unanimous jury verdicts. In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld these types of verdicts in Apodaca v. Oregon (406 U.S. 404) (1972).

    In 2020, the Court overturned Apodaca with Ramos v. Louisiana (140 U.S. 1390). The Court reasoned that a deeper historical examination of the criminal justice system revealed an intentional bias against some jurors. The non-unanimous verdict helped ensure guilty verdicts for African Americans by eliminating one or two African American “not-guilty” votes (Justice Kavanaugh concurrence at 1418).