Angry Jurors Hope to Give Acquitted Teen Their Jury Pay
At least three jurors who acquitted a Cleveland teen are so angry about the prosecution that they plan to give the defendant their $100 jury pay if he obtains a high school equivalency degree.
The 19-year-old defendant, Demrick McCloud, has been in jail since his Oct. 13 arrest, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. “He seemed like a decent kid who was falsely accused,” alternate juror Richard Nagin told the newspaper.
Besides donating their pay, a few jurors planned to write letters to police complaining about a less-than-thorough investigation.
McCloud was accused of leading a gang of teens that pulled a gun and beat a high school student walking home from school. In a vote at the start of their deliberations, nine out of 12 jurors said they didn’t believe the attack even occurred. They voted to acquit after 30 minutes of deliberations, the Plain Dealer says.
Jurors told the newspaper there were no medical records documenting injuries, no testimony of a search for a gun, and no verification the victim had left school early, as he had claimed. They also noted that the alleged victim had identified another youth as an assailant, even though that youth was in school at the time.
The story refers to a nine-month investigation by the Plain Dealer that found Cuyahoga County Prosecutor William Mason had pursued criminal prosecutions against hundreds of people despite having little or no evidence. During that time, judges acquitted 364 defendants midtrial.
Ryan Miday, spokesman for Mason, defended the McCloud prosecution. “Our victim was steadfast in his positive ID of McCloud, whom he recognized as someone he knew from the neighborhood, as one of the six or seven males who assaulted him,” Miday said.
Hat tip to Pat’s Papers.
