luci
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Texas Woman Kills Baby Daughter
« on: Feb 27th, 2006, 10:26pm » |
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NOTE by Luci:
This case has torn out the hearts of folks in our area
for this innocent baby.
Killed by her Mother last November by cutting off her little arms. The Trial ended a mistrial on Saturday!
Below is an account of the trial. When it comes on the news, I turn the TV, but can't escape it anywhere unless we just turn it off! When it happened I just could not bring myself to post about it, so very very sad!
Sad, sad, sad, read if you care to!
The one person who voted guilty in the Dena Schlosser capital murder case told other panelists he would never consider her insanity defense in the death of her 10-month-old daughter, three jurors said.
Ms. Schlosser's trial ended in a mistrial Saturday because jurors could not reach a unanimous decision after more than 40 hours of deliberations over four days. Ten panelists voted for not guilty by reason of insanity, one voted guilty and another could not make up her mind.
Three jurors described a journey that went from polite conversation at times to yelling and crying. At one point, the court gathered jurors' cellphones after complaints that the holdout wrote text messages during deliberations. At the outset, jurors were split 6-5-1 in favor of insanity before settling into the final split on the second day of deliberations.
Dena Schlosser got no verdict in the slaying of her daughter Maggie. To try to break their stalemate, jurors drew on easels and a whiteboard equations, graphs and charts documenting Ms. Schlosser's mental illness. They even came up with a theory comparing mental illness to the trajectory of a cannon ball.
"He told us from the beginning, he ... walked into the courtroom and his mind was already made," said juror Hani Jacob, 57. "He made an oath, but he wasn't really serious about it."
Legal experts say that if the holdout was asking questions, then he was participating in the process. Panelists said the 51-year-old juror asked them question after question during deliberations.
The holdout juror did not return phone calls seeking comment and did not answer the door at his Plano home Monday afternoon, though he had just gone inside. Fellow jurors and a neighbor could not provide definitive personal information about him or his occupation.
Panelist Debbie Keen, 30, said the holdout juror questioned whether Ms. Schlosser's serious shoulder wound was inflicted by police. She said he also questioned whether her church told Ms. Schlosser to kill daughter Maggie and she did even though she knew it was wrong.
Despite other panelists telling him – and sometimes yelling – that there was no evidence to support those scenarios, the holdout stuck to his position, jurors said. One juror's sarcastic response was to ask whether he thought aliens made her do it.
The holdout juror said he thought Ms. Schlosser believed killing Maggie was right, Ms. Keen said. But in the end, he told his fellow panelists that he could not vote for insanity unless he was absolutely sure. Several times in testimony, psychiatrists mentioned there was not a blood test to determine mental illness.
"He said he had a problem with the insanity defense," Ms. Keen said. "He told us he would not vote not guilty by reason of insanity unless he had 100 percent [certainty], unless someone could give that blood test."
Indiana University law professor J. Alexander Tanford said courts are typically distrustful of juror misconduct allegations after a trial ends. Jurors, he said, may think those who didn't change their minds did not follow the law.
The state and the defense do not disagree that Ms. Schlosser killed Maggie – only about her state of mind at the time. Ms. Schlosser has a history of postpartum psychosis and has said she believed God ordered her to cut off her daughter's arms at the shoulders. The case hinged on whether Ms. Schlosser, 37, knew right from wrong when she killed the girl.
Collin County District Attorney John Roach said no decision has been made about whether to try Ms. Schlosser again. Defense attorney David Haynes said a new trial date is expected to be announced Wednesday. Mr. Haynes said the defense was working at "flat-out, tip-top speed" to prepare for a second trial.
Neither the prosecution nor defense would discuss the case further.
Another trial?
Two jurors said Monday that they do not think the case should be tried again. They said the state should agree with the defense that Ms. Schlosser was insane and send her to a mental hospital. An alternate juror,
Linda Tucker of Plano, who was dismissed before deliberations began, also said Ms. Schlosser was insane.
Jurors wondered whether the prosecution thought Ms. Schlosser was insane, too, Ms. Keen said. She said many who ended up siding with the defense wanted a reason to vote guilty.
"There were questions in our mind whether they were just going through the motions," Ms. Keen said. "The prosecution only gave us straws to grasp on to."
Mr. Jacob said he, too, wanted more from the prosecution. He said he was disappointed when the prosecution rested without offering anything to counter the defense's assertion that Ms. Schlosser was psychotic when Maggie died.
"That's all you have to show me? A knife and the pictures?" Mr. Jacob said he thought when the state rested its case. "It should not have been tried the first time. There was no evidence."
The first vote when deliberations began Wednesday was six for insanity, five for guilty, one undecided, said Mr. Jacob, an educator who became a U.S. citizen after moving from Egypt in 1984. By the second day, it was nine to three in favor of insanity.
Jurors listened to the 911 recording again, watched a police interview of a family friend twice and sorted through all the medical records.
When jurors sent state District Judge Chris Oldner a note Thursday saying they were deadlocked – the first of three times – the vote was 10-2.
Cellphones confiscated:
Officially, the vote never wavered after that point, but one juror said the woman who was undecided switched to not guilty by reason of insanity in the end. Her identity was unclear.
Ms. Keen and Mr. Jacob said Judge Oldner confiscated jurors' cellphones Friday after the panel wrote a note of complaint about the holdout juror.
"He was texting during deliberations," Mr. Jacob said. "He was falling asleep, closing his eyes, shutting down."
Mr. Tanford, the law professor, said it was unusual for cellphones to be allowed during jury deliberations, but the judge must have been satisfied the jury wasn't compromised because the juror was not removed.
Collin County has no cellphone policy, leaving the matter up to each judge. It was unclear whether Judge Oldner has a policy on cellphones, but jurors are not allowed to have contact with other people during deliberations.
The stigma of voting for insanity was such that jurors referred to the possibilities as one, two or three. One was a guilty vote. Two was not guilty. Three was not guilty by reason of insanity. No one was a two.
"Are you a one or a three?" Ms. Keen recalled jurors asking each one another. "Will you switch to a three?"
All votes were taken aloud. Ms. Keen said she wonders whether the panel would have reached a verdict if votes had been written down.
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