U.S. District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala declared a
mistrial late Friday afternoon in the federal trial of a Madison police officer whose takedown of Sureshbhai
Patel, 57, left him man partially paralyzed, al.com reported
During the course of deliberations, the 12-person jury
informed Judge Haikala they could not reach a verdict – which must be
unanimous. The police officer, Eric Parker, was charged with violating the
civil rights under color of law of Sureshbhai Patel.
Ultimately, the jury told the judge on four different
occasions they could not reach a verdict.
Prosecutor Robert Posey said the U.S. government will try the
case against Parker again.
"We plan to re-try the case and so another jury will
get a chance to see this evidence and hear the testimony," Posey said.
"We will let them decide."
The case has drawn international attention after video of
the take down of Patel went viral. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley issued an
apology to the government of India
for the incident. In his apology, the governor described the actions taken by
Parker as "excessive force."
The north Alabama
jury did not fully agree.
Based on the final note the jury sent to Haikala, no jury
changed their position since deliberations began anew when an alternate juror
was added on Thursday morning. Altogether, the new jury deliberated about
10 hours.
We plan to re-try the case and so another jury will get a
chance to see this evidence and hear the testimony.
"That's one thing that we might never know,"
Parker's attorney, Robert Tuten, said when asked what he thought made the
difference with the jury. "Obviously some of them saw things our way and
some of them didn't. At the end of the day, we come back and try it again.
We'll see how that goes."
Parker, who is on administrative leave pending the outcome
of the criminal proceedings against him, appeared to be uplifted throughout the
day Friday as about 20 friends and family offered support while holding vigil
in the courtroom awaiting the trial's outcome.
When the judge declared the mistrial, there was no emotional
reaction evident from Parker, though he was in chambers with the attorneys as
they met with Haikala before she announced the end of the trial.
Parker declined comment when approached by an AL.com
reporter.
"He wasn't convicted and I know he's happy about
that," Tuten said. "Obviously he doesn't think he should be. He's
done nothing wrong. Hopefully he can get some peace and comfort from
that."
The Patel family, through attorney Hank Sherrod, declined to
comment on the mistrial in an email to AL.com.
A re-trial won't be far in the future. Posey said federal
law mandates the trial begin within 70 days, unless one side asks for a delay
and it's granted by the judge.
"Our team is going to go back and huddle up and review,
as you might expect, everything that we've done and see if there's anything we
want to change," Posey said. "We were able to introduce all of our evidence.
The jury got a chance to hear from the defendant. We'll just look forward to
the next time."
Haikala told jurors as she dismissed them that they could
not speak to anyone about the trial for two days.
Video shows Alabama police officer throwing grandfather from
India to the ground
The trial took two weeks, with testimony and closing
arguments completed on Wednesday.
The jury first told the judge they could not reach a verdict
late on Thursday afternoon. Haikala sent them home for the night and told them
to resume their work Friday morning.
By 2:30 Friday afternoon, the jury had twice sent notes to
the judge saying they could not complete their task.
After the third note of a stalemate, Haikala gave the jury
the so-called "dynamite charge" – reminding them of the time, expense
and emotional stress invested in the trial by both sides. She also told the
jury there would be no reason for them to believe another jury could reach a
verdict in a potential re-trial.
That exhortation failed to sway the jury to a unanimous
decision.
http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2015/09/mistrial_declared_in_indian_gr.html#incart_river
