what was the final verdict and what was surprising about it?
Answers
Answer:
In October 2016, a jury stunned observers by acquitting armed antigovernment protesters, led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy, of federal conspiracy and weapons charges stemming from last winter’s takeover of the federally-owned Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The occupation that began in January eventually swelled to up to 25 armed occupiers, drawing national attention to and highlighting the decades-long dispute over federal land rights in the West.
One of the jurors told the Oregonian that the government had failed to prove a key part of the conspiracy charge: that the defendants had the “intent” to keep federal employees from doing their jobs. “It should be known that all 12 jurors felt that this verdict was a statement regarding the various failures of the prosecution to prove ‘conspiracy’ in the count itself — and not any form of affirmation of the defense’s various beliefs, actions or aspirations,” juror number 4 wrote in an email to the newspaper.
But this certainly isn’t the only example of an apparent slam-dunk case ending in a surprise jury verdict. Recent history has seen some other notorious examples: