Mary Beth Magrum
Appearances
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 08: Closing Statements
First, what we do is go over some of the potential verdicts that the jury could come to when they do reach that deliberation phase. So all of these charges for count one, Jason Chen can either be found not guilty of all of them or guilty of one of these counts.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 08: Closing Statements
So it's first degree premeditated murder, second degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, reckless homicide, reckless aggravated assault, criminally negligent homicide, assault or reckless endangerment. And the jury can also go ahead and find him not guilty of all of those charges. Now he's also facing a second count that will be guilty of abuse of a corpse. or not guilty.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 08: Closing Statements
Now, when it came to those jury instructions, it is the jury's job in these cases to determine the guilt or the innocence of the defendant in this case. One thing that Judge Boyd Patterson said is that absolute certainty is not required, but moral certainty in this case is.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 08: Closing Statements
And that the statements the jury don't believe are supported by the evidence presented in this case, those should be disregarded by the jury. Now we'll go into a little bit more of what they're able to do. So the jury is free to believe all, none or some of the witness testimony that we've heard in these seven days of this trial.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 08: Closing Statements
The jury can consider the reputation of truthfulness or any sort of special reasons that a witness may have to be honest or dishonest in this trial. And they can also decide who they believe or what testimony matches the evidence that was presented in this case. They also do not have to believe the opinion of the expert witnesses that was shown in this trial.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 08: Closing Statements
Or if there is a part of that testimony that they believe, they can choose to go ahead and believe that portion while disregarding the others. If there's any sort of disagreement to the testimony that we've heard so far, any form of contradiction, the jury may be able to decide. what they believe in that case.
SEQUESTERED Podcast
Episode 08: Closing Statements
And one thing that they also mentioned, Meg, you mentioned that Jason Chen did make the choice to not testify today. The jury cannot use that. They cannot use Chen's choice to not testify as guilt because it is the responsibility of the state in this case to prove his guilt.