agingrebel.com
One of the jurors who found the turn of
phrase “Mongol Nation” guilty of racketeering last December, admitted
today that the jury made a mistake.
In a batch of four motions filed late
Thursday afternoon by Mongols attorney Joseph A. Yanny, Juror Number
Two, a citizen named Eric Garcia told the court:
“I am submitting this declaration
because I feel ethically compelled to do so as I do not want to see an
injustice and I therefore feel an obligation to speak up. It is my
belief and, I am informed, the belief of others jurors as well who
served with me in the Mongols Nation trial that we reached the wrong
decision in our verdict in the guilt phase. For these reasons. I felt
the need to write a letter to the Court and hand deliver it
approximately Friday a week ago. I also sent a copy to both the
prosecution and the defense lawyers.”
“Once jury deliberations began for the
guilt phase of the trial, the jury never re-read any of the jury
instructions. The jury instructions were held exclusively by the
foreperson and not distributed to the group at all during the initial
guilt phase deliberations.”
“During the closing arguments on the
forfeiture phase, when defense counsel place some of the guilt phase
jury instructions on the overhead projector, it was then that I and
several other jurors realized that a mistake had already been made.”
The declaration was attached to motions
filed in reply to the government’s opposition to previous motions for a
directed verdict of not guilty an, failing that, a new trial.