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Cosby trial declared "mistrial"

B

bionic77

Member
17 Seconds said:
wtf. i haven't been paying attention to the trial. weren't there dozens and dozens of people who came forward?
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That is not going to come into this trial. It would be excluded by the rules of evidence for multiple reasons.

The prosecutors probably only had the word of the victim. Remember this happened more than 10 years ago.

Keep in mind that it can be hard to get a rape conviction even when the case is brand new. On an old case like this it was always going to be really hard to get the conviction. That is why I am still happy that they brought the charges and went forward with this.
 
E

Emperor_Uriel

Member
Expected. The prosecution's evidence was very shaky, and most of the other womens' allegations were far too old to be admissible.

With zero concrete evidence and a very complex relationship between Constand and Cosby, putting him away is impossible.
 
P

PillarEN

Member
The jury going in is supposed to have pretty much no knowledge or opinion before the case? Am I sort of right about that? That would make such results a lot less surprising. A jury going into this case being clueless about the whole ordeal must be a pretty simple bunch though. I mean you'd have to be living under a rock in the States.
 
CortexVortex

CortexVortex

Banned
giphy.gif
 
D

Dreams-Visions

Member
With only one of the many cases actually part of the trial and with so much time having gone by, it's no surprise at all, GAF.

Ya'll shouldn't be surprised at all. With no evidence and damn near 15 years since the incident, there was no way this was going to be a win for the victim.
 
Clinton514

Clinton514

Member
Dreams-Visions said:
With only one of the many cases actually part of the trial and with so much time having gone by, it's no surprise at all, GAF.

Ya'll shouldn't be surprised at all. With no evidence and damn near 15 years since the incident, there was no way this was going to be a win for the victim.
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Exactly.
 
S

Snowman Prophet of Doom

Member
bionic77 said:
More like must be nice being a male in the United States.

Prosecutors barely win half of their rape cases, and those are the ones that they decide to take to trial. They don't take most of them.
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I would argue this is more an innate feature of the crime, itself, being that it typically occurs in private and often is not reported until after evidence has faded from existence.
 
V

Volimar

Member
It's hard to convict with pretty much no physical evidence, but on the other hand he admitted to drugging her and touching her. Shouldn't be THAT big a leap for a jury to see.
 
A

Alienfan

Member
Not really surprised. Rape is hard to prove days after it's happens, let alone decades; one of the few horrific crimes that leaves little to no evidence
 
R

Raxus

Member
Alienfan said:
Not really surprised. Rape is hard to prove days after it's happens, let alone decades; one of the few horrific crimes that leaves little to no evidence
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All the more horrifying when you realize rape kits in some states go untested for years.

I am shocked even after his admission of drugging her he still got a mistrial. That is intent right there.
 
U

uncelestial

Member
Get them next time, prosecution! Hopefully the judge lets you call in more of his victims to the stand next time.

I don't know who the fuck this stupid jury was, but this isn't over yet, thankfully.
 
D

DarkKyo

Member
Cannot wait for AI juries. The common man is not capable of the critical thinking required for deliberating criminal cases.
 
Emerson

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
Volimar said:
It's hard to convict with pretty much no physical evidence, but on the other hand he admitted to drugging her and touching her. Shouldn't be THAT big a leap for a jury to see.
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Juries are not supposed to make any leaps when the burden of proof is beyond a reasonable doubt. A leap introduces reasonable doubt by definition.

Cosby is no doubt a piece of shit and I am quite sure he's guilty, but this case was impossible to prove to the legal standard required.
 
E

Emperor_Uriel

Member
uncelestial said:
I don't know who the fuck this stupid jury was, but this isn't over yet, thankfully.
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Jury wasn't stupid, if anything they were extremely technically-minded.

I think what happens a lot of times is jurors come into these complex cases expecting the evidence to be solid and the law to be extremely concrete guidance. Then they realize that the evidence is flimsy and, more importantly, that the law is extremely subjective and offers both sides a ton of leeway depending on the jury's disposition.

Combine that shock with decades-old allegations and a very complex relationship between the defendant and the plaintiff, and there's just no way to prove or disprove consent here. I don't think Cosby's fame or fortune were a core factor at all.
 
T

Tovarisc

Member
Raxus said:
All the more horrifying when you realize rape kits in some states go untested for years.

I am shocked even after his admission of drugging her he still got a mistrial. That is intent right there.
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His defense sided with prosecution and admitted that he drugged her?

What?
 
T

The Llama

Member
Emperor_Uriel said:
Jury wasn't stupid, if anything they were extremely technically-minded.

I think what happens a lot of times is jurors come into these complex cases expecting the evidence to be solid and the law to be extremely concrete guidance. Then they realize that the evidence is flimsy and, more importantly, that the law is extremely subjective and offers both sides a ton of leeway depending on the jury's disposition.

Combine that shock with decades-old allegations and a very complex relationship between the defendant and the plaintiff, and there's just no way to prove or disprove consent here. I don't think Cosby's fame or fortune were a core factor at all.
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Yeah, not sure anyone should fault the jury here. By all accounts they seemed to do a great job: took their time, asked numerous questions, spent a lot of additional time deliberating after initially reporting they couldn't come to a decision, etc.
 
A

Agent Icebeezy

Welcome beautful toddler, Madison Elizabeth, to the horde!
Unfortunate but someone in their mind, I'm almost positive that they couldn't get past him being Heathcliff Huxtable.
 
D

darkinstinct

...lacks reading comprehension.
shira said:
giphy.gif
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Taking a gif of an alleged rapist to complain about the mistrial of an alleged rapist? 8|

A mistrial is a decent outcome. It may have been just one juror that deadlocked this jury, so just do another trial with a new jury and it might come through then. If jurors felt there was still doubt, that's fair. This is very much a case of he said/she said, you better be sure if you sentence someone.
 
S

SapphiCine

Member
Just another reminder that our justice system is fucked, particularly when it comes to rape.
Emperor_Uriel said:
Jury wasn't stupid, if anything they were extremely technically-minded.

I think what happens a lot of times is jurors come into these complex cases expecting the evidence to be solid and the law to be extremely concrete guidance. Then they realize that the evidence is flimsy and, more importantly, that the law is extremely subjective and offers both sides a ton of leeway depending on the jury's disposition.

Combine that shock with decades-old allegations and a very complex relationship between the defendant and the plaintiff, and there's just no way to prove or disprove consent here. I don't think Cosby's fame or fortune were a core factor at all.
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I don't entirely blame the jury. They are a symptom of the system ill equipped to handle these cases.
 
W

whytemyke

Honorary Canadian.
darkinstinct said:
Taking a gif of an alleged rapist to complain about the mistrial of an alleged rapist? 8|

A mistrial is a decent outcome. It may have been just one juror that deadlocked this jury, so just do another trial with a new jury and it might come through then. If jurors felt there was still doubt, that's fair. This is very much a case of he said/she said, you better be sure if you sentence someone.
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Ultimately, as of yesterday, the jury was deadlocked with an even split. I'd be surprised to hear that it shifted from that after 3 days to just one juror being stumped after 4 days.
 
C

Chumly

Member
Emperor_Uriel said:
Jury wasn't stupid, if anything they were extremely technically-minded.

I think what happens a lot of times is jurors come into these complex cases expecting the evidence to be solid and the law to be extremely concrete guidance. Then they realize that the evidence is flimsy and, more importantly, that the law is extremely subjective and offers both sides a ton of leeway depending on the jury's disposition.

Combine that shock with decades-old allegations and a very complex relationship between the defendant and the plaintiff, and there's just no way to prove or disprove consent here. I don't think Cosby's fame or fortune were a core factor at all.
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This. People seem to forget the fact that the 40+ women didn't take the stand. All the jury could look at was this one women's word against his. Based off the strict rules of what they could take into consideration I am not for sure if I would have come back with a guilty verdict either
 
DirtyLarry

DirtyLarry

Member
I actually had to look up if him doing the Hey Hey Hey walking out of the courthouse was real. I think it is safe to say he already knew what the outcome of the trial would be.
 
J

JasonUresti

Member
frankie_baby said:
And in a he said she said case i cant see any other decision from an AI jury than not guilty within seconds
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Indeed.

An AI would given a Not Guilty verdict immediately. Cosby came closer to being convicted here than he ever would with an emotionless AI looking at the case.
 
M

Malreyn

Member
DarkKyo said:
Cannot wait for AI juries. The common man is not capable of the critical thinking required for deliberating criminal cases.
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Its not even about critical thinking, its about the fact that jurors don't even use "reasonable doubt" anymore....people today are so stuck in their own worldviews that no matter what evidence or facts are present to them they'll stick to their own opinions rather than conforming to the groups decision to make a verdict...
 
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