Please read our previous related post, for a background to the following:
After about one (1) hour of jury deliberations this morning, the jury foreman for the Buju Banton trial, informed presiding judge, Jim Moody, that:
1) The 12-member jury was split evenly, with six (6) jurors declaring Buju innocent and six (6) guilty
2) No one was giving up his/her position.
Judge Moody, in response, told them that:
1) None should surrender his/her conscience vote
2) They should deliberate for awhile longer, as he was not going to declare a mistrial.
Well, later in the afternoon, it was reported that there was a hung jury, meaning, that the jury could not reach a unanimous decision as to Buju's guilt or innocence...Apparently no juror had changed his/her position since this morning.
(In the US, if all 12 jurors can't agree, then the case has to be retried...)
So Buju Banton's case will be retried some time in December.
In the meantime, Buju's lawyers will try to get bail for him tomorrow.
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I can tell you that a lot of Jamaicans, including myself, breathed a collective sigh of relief when the hung jury pronouncement was made, but we are still holding our breaths, slightly, until December.
Girl With a Purpose (GWAP) Blog will continue to keep you updated re Buju's application for bail and his pending retrial.
Gillian
Sources Include
1) Power 106 FM, September 27,2010
2) Nationwide Radio, September 27,2010
3) Television Jamiaca's Prime Time News at 7:00 p.m.,September 27,2010
4) Article, "Jamaican superstar Buju's retrial set for December",September 27,2010
