IPT Reveals Jury Room Bullying In Holy Land Foundation Trial
Juror William Neal (pictured) was a bully, a steamroller, and a fucking pain in the ass, according to some fellow jurors.
Click Here to watch the video.
DALLAS – She felt the men were guilty and tried to explain why to the 11 other jurors. When she finished, one juror spoke up in an angry tone.
“If you’re going by the evidence in this room,” she recalls him snapping, “then you need to go home.”
The terrorism-support trial of five Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) officials, which began July 24, already had been stressful for 49-year-old Kristina Williams. She had lost her job two weeks into it. Now during deliberations, she felt bullied and intimidated virtually every time she voiced an opinion.
“When I’d get off the jury I’d come home every night and basically cry because I felt like every time I spoke I would get knocked down, criticized, one way or the other for something pertaining to the way I voted,” Williams said in an exclusive interview.
While several jurors favored acquittals, just one out of the 12 did most of the knocking down. In fact, interviews with three HLF jurors - speaking publicly for the first time - suggest that juror William Neal’s stridency may have changed the trial’s outcome. Neal even claimed credit for steering jurors away from convictions in a recent radio interview. Until now, he has been the sole source for public perception of the deliberations and the government’s case.
The three jurors interviewed by the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) showed the Neal-created perception as skewed. All three jurors say they disagree with his views of the evidence and the prosecution’s case. To them, it seems clear that Neal made up his mind going into the jury room and refused to consider any argument in favor of guilt. He preferred to read the court’s instructions rather than look at exhibits in evidence, they said. And his often snide manner intimidated and bullied those who disagreed with him.
The effect this had on the case is clear. When a juror walked out in frustration after just four days of deliberations, it followed a confrontation with Neal. When another juror briefly refused to cast a vote, it was after a confrontation with Neal. Williams broke down several times during the 19 days jurors spent locked in debate. Each incident followed what she felt was an attack by Neal.
In an interview with the IPT Dec. 3, Neal said he had no regrets. He disputed only some parts of the other jurors’ stories – he said he can’t remember telling Williams to go home if she was relying on the evidence in the jury room — but stopped short of saying it didn’t happen.
“We had so many conversations they tend to blend together,” he said.
Read the whole article at IPT here.
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Hmmmm….anyone notice Mr. Neal driving a brand new Escolade soon after the trial? Maybe a Caribbean Cruise?
Or will we read his name in the paper in six months as…. Ibrahim al-Neal?
December 10th, 2007 at 5:31 pmThis demonstrates clearly the insanity of putting these national-security/terror cases thru the regular criminal justice system.
All it takes is one “bully”/strong personality (which is which is a matter of perception, personality, end result, etc) on the jury and the conviction is blocked. This may or may not be justice, but it is clearly not an appropriate venue for national security actions.
Keep in mind that “guilt beyond a reasonable doubt” is the highest standard in the law, and there can be MANY valid reasons for such doubt. Also keep in mind that our prosecutors are historically naive/inexperienced in these cases, so they often mishandle/misemphasize the evidence they do have. If the prosecutor screws up, and leaves a hole big enough to drive a defense truck thru, then you really can’t blame the juror[s].
Jurors are told to keep their minds open until after “the close of all the evidence,” not until after they’ve deliberated w/other jurors, so this guy didn’t break any rules on that.
BTW, while this article blames 1 bully, a careful reading shows there were others that AGREED w/his initial NG take.
Let’s hope the prosecutors learn from this, and do a better job next time.
December 10th, 2007 at 5:35 pmThere were rumors going around DFW that this bullying was going on by mainly Neal (who claims to be a staunch liberal and used to live in the Middle East), but others as well - I guarantee there was jury tampering - the judge wouldn’t let the trial be televized and that was a huge mistake . . . she (the juror above) should be very careful or she will end up dead.
Not only do we have illegal immigration problems in DFW, we have a huge Muslim population that makes no claims to being moderate - One of the individuals for the first World Trade Center bombing was from “just down the street” . . . This case was so huge and, of course, came and went without any media scrutiny. M. Savage is standing up to CAIR, but he is only one talk show host and one who gets maligned by other conservative talk show hosts. CAIR was heavy handed on this case – unindited coconspirator . . . blah blah blah
December 10th, 2007 at 9:00 pmThat guy has “piece of shit” written all over him.
December 10th, 2007 at 11:33 pm