It didn’t take long for juror number 4, Francois Larche, to go public.  To hear him, he’s the victim.  I doubt John White agrees.  White, of course, was convicted of manslaughter 2.  Larche, who says he does not believe White was guilty, was part of the jury that convicted him.

Following deliberations in this case, it was patently obvious that the conviction was the result of a collapse, following the coercive Allen charge, the weekend and the upcoming Christmas holiday.  As I wrote immediately after the verdict was returned:

He was  convicted yesterday of second degree manslaughter.  The jury was  deadlocked the day before, and received the typical coercive Allen charge, making sure they realized that despite their deadlock, they would be kept in that jury room all weekend, the same one before Christmas that the rest of us are enjoying, until they reached a verdict.  Then a Christmas miracle occurred; they reached a compromise verdict.  The jury found White guilty.

It was only matter of time before guilt overcame the juror(s) whose self-doubt and weakness caused them collapse into a pile of jello and go along with the majority, desperate to get back to their jobs, families and shopping obligations.

It’s not that Francois Larche is an evil person, despite Norm’s deserved disdain, but that he was weak and unsure of whether he felt strongly enough to face down 10 other jurors.  Weakness in the face of pressure is not an attractive trait; it’s just not that abnormal either.  Even though twelve is a relatively arbitrary number of people who have to agree on something, each of the twelve functions as a part of, and independent of, the whole.  It is intentional that the decision must be unanimous, rather than a simple majority or even plurality.  When it is not unanimous, the defendant doesn’t get the full jury of 12 to which he’s entitled.

But Larche isn’t the first juror to feel pressured.  And the internal pressure of a jury is part of the dynamic that is supposed to make the system work.  The problem is when a jury tells a judge that it’s hung, as happened here, and the judge keeps pushing until she gets a verdict that was so flagrantly a produce of coercion that no one (even me) could miss it. 

Sometimes, the weak juror wants to hide from his failure to stand up.  Other time, like here, the juror comes forward to seek absolution by publicly admitting his weakness and then blaming it on others. 

Weakness is not a crime.  Unfortunately, it is part and parcel of the jury system.  It takes a very strong person to stand up to 11 others and hold his ground.  The judge’s instructions are designed to make the 12th juror collapse and give in to the will of the 11.  It is designed to suggest that if they hang, they have failed to State.  It is intended to coerce a reluctant juror to give up his heartfelt belief to the will of the others.  It says it’s not, but it really is.  Judges don’t want a retrial.  They want a verdict.

And so Judge Barbara Kahn used the weekend and holiday to twist a couple of arms in the jury room.  She knew it when she did it, as did everyone else I suspect.  You would have to be pretty darn thick to have no understood and appreciate what she was doing with her Allen charge.

As for John White, the max he can receive is 5-15 years, but rest assured that his sentence will be nothing close to that.  As a first offender on a class “C” felony, under the very peculiar circumstances of this case, I would expect him to receive 5 years probation.  The worst I can imagine is a split, with 6 months in jail and the balance on probation.  White’s no danger to anyone, and there was something rather heroic in his defense of his son, innocent of any wrongdoing, against some angry kids screaming racial epithets. 

So Francios Larche does not get to claim victimhood in this case.  There were too many victims already, and he took an oath to perform one function, hold out for his true beliefs.  He is a coward, but not a particularly unusual coward.  A rather run-of-the-mill coward.  A basic weakling.  And his coming forward to announce his weakness to the world hardly makes him a better person.  Just a weakling who wants attention.

Judge Barbara Kahn, on the other hand, knew what she was doing when the gave that coercive Allen charge.  She may think that a sentence of probation squares things between her and White.  I think not.