>>> tonight for the face time some of the jurors in the john edwards case are speaking out publicly about what went on in the jury room, what they think of edwards and why. after nine days of deliberations they were unable to reach a verdict in five of the six counts against him. here's nbc's lisa myers .
>> reporter: jurors say they put aside their personal feelings about john edwards , deliberated diligently and tried to work it out but finally realized yesterday there would be no unanimous decision on five of the six counts. on the "today" show, the foreman and two other jurors told matt lauer they voted strictly on the evidence.
>> raise your hands if you think john edwards was guilty on at least some of the counts against him. okay, raise your hands if you think john edwards is a bad guy .
>> reporter: later one juror explained the contradiction.
>> in this instance i think he is a, possibly a good person who made a bad decision.
>> reporter: why wasn't edwards convicted of anything? these jurors say the government simply failed to prove the allegations. that edwards orchestrated a scheme to use almost $1 million in illegal contributions from wealthy donors to hide his mistress, rielle hunter, and that he knew he was breaking the law when he did it.
>> we all thought that he knew, but there just was not the evidence there to prove it.
>> it was just a lack of evidence. we had to go back and ask for assistance and direction, but it just, it wasn't there.
>> reporter: they said they didn't find the prosecution's star witness, andrew young , to be credible. two jurors said the fact that the youngs pocketed most of the money and poured much of it, this, their dream home, was hung.
>> our goal in that jury room was to follow the money. that money just was never in john edwards ' hands.
>> reporter: jurors told us that on every count the majority of jurors sided with edwards , voting not guilty. in the end they say the most votes prosecutors got on any count was 4 out of the 12 needed, a stinging defeat. the jury foreman called it a victory for the system.
>> it proved that someone can be innocent until proven guilty and that's exactly what happened in this case.
>> reporter: the justice department still is not commenting on the verdict or on whether it will retry a case that was highly criticized from the start. federal law enforcement source says a retrial is unlikely. lester?
>> lisa myers in north carolina
record store day 2012 detroit red wings jose canseco zimmerman derek fisher lyrid meteor shower hippocrates
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.