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Calaroga Shark Media. Good morning. This is Daily Crime and
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Justice from Calaroga Media, powered by AI. I'm Garrett Fisher.
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It's Wednesday, September 16th, 2026. Today is about one question
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asked three different ways. Who actually gets to decide? In Largo, Florida,
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a plastic surgeon is on trial for his life, representing himself.
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On day one, the state laid out its case, and
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when it was his turn to give an opening statement,
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he did not give one. When it was his turn
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to cross-examine the state's witnesses, he did not cross-examine any
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of them. In Honolulu, a judge did order an entire
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jury back into his courtroom over the objection of both
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the prosecution and the defense. And then, when they got there,
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he refused to ask them the question the defense most
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wanted answered. That refusal is the story. And it lines
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up exactly with something that happened in Plymouth, Massachusetts three
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weeks ago. And in Idaho and in Florida, two defendants
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are trying to get rid of their judges. One of
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them has already pleaded guilty to four murders. The other
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is on his fourth attempt. Let's get into it. Stephen
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Kazi was 41 years old. He was an attorney at
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a firm in Largo, Florida. He was married to a
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man named Michael Montgomery. On the morning of March 21st, 2023,
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Kazi had a telephonic court hearing scheduled. Tomasz Kosawski called
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into that hearing. Stephen Kazi did not. Minutes before, surveillance
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video had recorded a gray Toyota Tundra pulling into the
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parking lot outside Kazi's office. Later that day, co-workers went
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looking for him. They went into the communal bathroom. According
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to prosecutors, they found blood everywhere. Yesterday, three and a
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half years later, the trial began. And Assistant State Attorney
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Alexandra Spadaro gave an opening statement that I am still
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thinking about. She told Judge Joseph Ballone that Stephen Causey
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did not disappear on his own terms, that he was
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murdered in the bathroom of his law firm, that his
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body was placed in a wagon and dragged to the
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parking lot and loaded into a truck. And then she
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said this, that his coffin was a dumpster, his hearse
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was a dump truck. and his burial site, where he
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lies in tiny, unidentifiable pieces, is the Collier County landfill.
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Investigators searched that landfill for three days. They did not
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find him. The state's theory is that this began with
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a lawsuit. Kosowski filed a civil case in 2019 over
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medical billing. Cozy represented people Kosowski was suing. Kosowski represented
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himself in that case, and Spadaro told the court he
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made it contentious and he made it personal. particularly between
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himself and Stephen Kazi. She told the judge that cell
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phone data shows Kasowski's phone connecting to the law firm's
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wireless network on days when he had no reason to
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be on that property. And she said that in the
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weeks before Kazi disappeared, the firm's maintenance woman reported finding
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a man peeking through the law firm's window and then
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hiding in a dark utility closet wearing a surgical mask.
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When Kosowski was arrested days later, police say they found
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in his car a ballistic vest with Stephen Causey's blood
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on it, duct tape, a paralyzing agent, syringes with sedatives,
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brass knuckles, a taser, two passports, and roughly $ 280, 000 in cash.
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Prosecutors called it a murder bag. They also said he
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had injuries consistent with a struggle. All of that is
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the state's allegation. Tomasz Kosowski has pleaded not guilty and
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he is presumed innocent. And not one word of it
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has been proven. And here's what he did about it yesterday. Nothing.
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He gave no opening statement. Prosecutors then called their first witnesses,
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including Kozy's husband and his friends and his colleagues, several
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of whom testified about finding blood in that bathroom and
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immediately thinking of one name. Tomasz Kosowski cross-examined none of them.
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Not one question to any witness on the first day
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of a trial in which the state of Florida is
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asking for his execution. I want to be careful here
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because there is a version of this that is strategy.
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A self-represented defendant who cross-examines the grieving husband of a
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murder victim can do himself enormous damage, and in a
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bench trial there is no jury to perform for. A
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lawyer might reasonably decide to let emotional witnesses pass untouched
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and save the fight for the forensic testimony. That is
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a real tactic and I am not going to pretend
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it is not. But put it next to everything else.
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He fired four sets of attorneys. He refused to sign
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consent forms for a doctor's evaluation. He told his own
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lawyer he did not want evidence presented in his defense.
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He withdrew the motions to suppress. He withdrew every objection
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to the death penalty. He waived a jury for both phases.
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He has said he does not intend to present any
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mitigation at all if there is a penalty phase. And
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now he has sat through the first day of his
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own capital murder trial in silence. I said Monday, I'm
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not a doctor and I am not diagnosing anybody. And
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a judge who has watched this man for three years
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has found him competent. And that judge knows more than
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I do. All of that is still true. It is
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also true that the state is presenting a murder case
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to a single human being and the defendant is not
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contesting any of it. One structural note about how this
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trial is running, because it explains the pace. There is
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no jury, so there is nobody to excuse from the
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room when the lawyers argue. There was no jury selection,
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which in a capital case can take weeks on its own.
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There are no instructions to draft at the end. Objections
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get made and ruled on in front of the only
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person who matters, which is the same person ruling on them.
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And because Kosowski withdrew the suppression motions, there is no
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fight about what comes in. Essentially, everything the state has
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is going in. That is why a case that took
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three and a half years to reach trial may be
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over in a matter of days. Court resumed yesterday morning
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at 9.15. We will be on it again tomorrow. Stephen
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Kazi was 41. He went to work, he stepped away
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from his desk, and his husband has spent three and
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a half years without a body to bury. Someone has
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to say his name. When we come back, a judge
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orders a whole jury back into court, and both sides
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beg him not to. On March 24th, 2025, Gerhard Koenig
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and his wife Arielle went hiking on the Palipuka Trail
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on Oahu. It was her birthday. Their marriage was in trouble,
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and the trip was, at least partly, an attempt to
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salvage it. What happened on that ridge is disputed in
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almost every particular. Both of them testified. Each said the
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other started it. Prosecutors said he tried to push her
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off the cliff, and when that failed, tried to inject
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her with a syringe and beat her head with a rock.
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Prosecutor Joel Garner told the jury the only thing that
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stopped him was being caught red-handed when two hikers came
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upon them. Koenig, a Maui anesthesiologist, admitted hitting his wife
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in the head with a rock, but testified he was
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acting in self-defense, and that she was the one who
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attacked him. On April 8th, after more than eight hours
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of deliberation, the jury acquitted him of attempted second-degree murder.
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They convicted him instead of a lesser charge, attempted manslaughter
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based on extreme mental or emotional disturbance. He faces up
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to 20 years. He has been held without bond ever since,
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and his sentencing has been postponed while all of this
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plays out. And then, immediately after the verdict, two of
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those jurors gave interviews to the press. The foreperson, Makalapua Atkins,
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said the jury convicted on the lesser charge because they
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did not feel the evidence would support that he intended
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to murder her. In one interview, she put it this way,
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the intent to kill is improbable to us based on
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the evidence presented. A second juror, identified publicly only as
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juror number three, said the same thing. Koenig's attorney, Thomas Otake,
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took that and built a motion for a new trial
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on two separate claims. The first is about the verdict itself.
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Otake argues that under Hawaii law, even attempted manslaughter requires
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a finding that the defendant intended to kill. Extreme emotional
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disturbance mitigates the offense. It does not erase the element
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of intent. So if the jurors are saying publicly they
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never unanimously found that, the verdict rests on something the
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jury did not actually decide. Atkins went further and signed
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a sworn affidavit saying exactly that. The second claim is
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different in kind. During the trial on the Law and
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Crime livestream, an anonymous commenter claimed to be text messaging
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with a juror during deliberations. I want you to hold
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on to that for a second because I will come
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back to it. Last month, Judge Paul Wong held a
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hearing on all of it, and he made a decision
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that surprised everybody. Rather than rule, he said he had
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to hear from the jurors themselves. He cited a Hawaii
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Supreme Court decision requiring further inquiry. He said the court
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must ascertain the extent of the influence, and that the
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burden was on him. He also said he had to
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do something he really did not want to do. Both
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sides opposed it. The defense said its motion was strong
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enough without dragging jurors back. The prosecution said questioning them
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would violate the rules protecting deliberations. He ordered them back anyway,
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for September 11th. And here is what actually happened when
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they got there, which is the part almost every account
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is glossed over. Judge Wong told the courtroom he would
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ask the jurors one thing only, whether any of them
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communicated with an outsider about the deliberations or the verdict.
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Nothing else. He said the questioning was being done very
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much out of an abundance of caution given the state
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of the record. Otake asked him to put on the
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record why he would not allow the second line of questioning,
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the one about whether the panel was ever unanimous on intent.
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And Wong confirmed it. He would not ask the jurors
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about their unanimity. He would not ask them about intent.
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He cited Hawaii's evidentiary rule barring inquiry into jurors' internal
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reasoning and the state Supreme Court's decision in Rickapore Hall
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against Philip Morris. Otake noted his objection and pointed out
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that even the prosecution had conceded parts of the foreperson's
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affidavit were not barred by that rule. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney
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Joel Garner's position was simpler. He said they did not
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want to turn it into a fishing expedition. Nine jurors
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were present. Three could not attend, one of them not
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even on the island, and they will be questioned separately
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on September 18th. All nine answered no. Now, I want
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to connect this to something because it is the reason
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this segment is on the show. Three weeks ago in Plymouth, Massachusetts,
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Judge William Sullivan was handed a note from a jury
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foreperson saying one juror would not follow the law on
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reasonable doubt. A defense attorney demanded that juror be removed,
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accused him of lying under oath and asked the court
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to question him directly. Sullivan refused. He said the note
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did not show a juror refusing to follow the law.
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and that it was not proper for him to side
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with one side or the other in deliberations. Two judges,
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two states, two completely different cases, the same month. And
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both of them drew the identical line. Outside contact is investigable.
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If someone reached into that room, a court can and
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must find out. That is the recognized exception, and it
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exists in some form in every jurisdiction in this country.
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What happened inside the room is not. The reasoning, the arguments,
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the votes, whether anybody misunderstood an instruction, who convinced whom,
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what the foreperson thinks now that she has had four
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months to reconsider. All of that is off limits. That
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is called the no impeachment rule. And it is one
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of the least understood and most important things in American law.
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Here is why it exists. Without it, every losing party
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in every case would go find one juror willing to say,
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in hindsight, that they were confused. Verdicts would never be final.
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Jurors would be hounded by investigators for years afterward. And
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people would stop being candid in that room because everything
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they said could end up in an affidavit. So the
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rule says, we take the verdict, not the reasoning behind it.
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The verdict. It is a genuinely hard rule to love
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in a case like this one, where the foreperson has
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signed a sworn statement saying the panel never found what
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the verdict required. If she is right, then a man
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may be convicted of an offense whose elements were never established.
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And the law's answer is that the courts are not
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allowed to look. That is uncomfortable. I am not going
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to pretend otherwise. But watch what happened this month. Two
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judges in two states under enormous public pressure in cases
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with cameras in the courtroom and national audiences both had
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every incentive to open that door. Sullivan had a defense
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attorney shouting at him to do it. Wong had a
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sworn affidavit from a foreperson in his hand. Neither one
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opened it. That is the rule holding. And a rule
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that holds when it is inconvenient is the only kind
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worth having. Now back to that live stream comment. The
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allegation that sent 12 jurors back into a courtroom in September,
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four months after they went home, came from an anonymous
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person typing into the comment section of a live trial broadcast.
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Run by Law & Crime, which is the company that
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owns Court TV. So the network broadcasting the trial hosted
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the comment that produced the misconduct claim that may or
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may not unravel the verdict from that trial. I am
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not being snide about that. Law & Crime did not
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do anything wrong, and public access to courtrooms is a
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good thing that this show depends on entirely. But it
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is worth sitting with. We have built an apparatus where
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hundreds of thousands of strangers watch a trial in real
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time and talk to each other underneath it. And somewhere
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in that stream, one anonymous person made a claim that
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a court could not ignore. Nine jurors have now said
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it did not happen. Three more answer on Friday. And