I am not going to detail all the nonsense that went into the verdict. Instead I’m going to explain how I knew what the verdict would be as soon as it was announced that a verdict had been reached.

First there was never going to be a not guilty verdict given the makeup of the jury. And then there was no way it could have been a hung jury. The reason for this observation is because the judge did not enter the Allen charge.

What is that? When the jury indicates to the judge that they can’t reach a verdict, and that didn’t happen here, the judge usually gives an instruction that basically says you have a duty as a jury to reach a verdict. If you don’t you’re not doing your duty so go back and reach a unanimous verdict. That didn’t happen and this judge would have certainly have given the Allen charge. Since that didn’t happen guilty was the only option.