re: #36 Backwoods_Sleuth

The fact that this is a deadlocked jury isn’t surprising at all.

Before McDonnell (the US SCt case), this would have been a slam dunk corruption case.

After McDonnell, the definition of public act is so wide as to gut the federal corruption laws. We’ve seen a shit-ton of corruption convictions overturned on McDonnell grounds, including Joe Bruno, Shelly Silver, and other NYS legislator cases. Menendez would be yet another that would be tough to get to a conviction precisely because the case law has rendered corruption nearly impossible to prosecute.

The mistrial (likely) would mean that prosecutors would likely seek to prosecute again next year. It also means that a Democrat would be in Trenton (Murphy) and the process would favor Democrats for his replacement.