Celebrity Lawyer Explains Diddy’s Deadlocked Jury

[Source: CBS]

Celebrity lawyer and legal analyst Christopher C. Melcher, who is ranked as a best family law attorney in California, explains the deadlocked jury on the racketeering charge in the Diddy federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial.

A partial verdict has been reached in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial, with the jury deciding on four of five charges but remaining deadlocked on the most serious charge: racketeering conspiracy. Celebrity legal analyst Chris Melcher explained that while the jury struggles to agree on RICO, their agreement on other charges suggests serious legal trouble for Combs.

Meg Oliver:

Hello. Thank you for joining us. I’m Meg Oliver. A partial verdict has been reached in the federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs. After two days of deliberating, the jury was able to reach a verdict on four of the five charges Combs is facing, but they were unable to come to a consensus on count one, racketeering conspiracy. The judge has instructed the jury to keep deliberating. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Joining me now is CBS News national correspondent, Jericka Duncan, who has been following this trial since the beginning. Jericka, do we know anything more about why the jurors are divided?

Why Diddy Jury is Deadlocked

Jericka Duncan:

The juror note said that there were some jurors that had unpersuadable opinions, but the judge instructed them to deliberate some more. They’ve only been deliberating about 12 and a half to 13 hours. Remember, they just got the jury instructions yesterday and started deliberating at about 11:30, 11:40 in the morning. So even though they cannot seem to have or find a consensus on racketeering conspiracy, which was a very complicated charge, the judge is saying, “Keep going. Keep deliberating.” The prosecution and the defense think that that is a good idea. So that’s what’s going to happen.

Even though we now know that they say they’ve reached a verdict on those other counts, and we don’t know, by the way, what the decision is, whether it’s guilty, whether it’s not guilty, but we do know at least they’ve reached a decision of verdict on two, three, four, and five. Now it’s up to the jurors to see if they can try to reach a verdict on racketeering conspiracy, the most serious charge, by the way.

Meg Oliver:

So then what happens next? Are the jurors deliberating right now? How long could that continue?

Jericka Duncan:

They actually were sent home about 30 minutes ago and they were told to come back here at 9:00 A.M. so that they can continue those conversations and deliberate.

Meg Oliver:

All right. Jericka Duncan, following all of these late developments on this case. Thank you so much.

Chris Melcher Explains Partial Verdict

Joining me now is Chris Melcher, top family law attorney and and former sex crimes defense attorney. Chris, good to have you. First of all, explain what a partial verdict means for Combs’ case from a legal standpoint.

Chris Melcher:

The jury is deadlocked, meaning cannot come to a decision on count one which is this racketeering charge, but has come to a decision on the other counts which involve sex trafficking and transportation for prostitution. So if they were to render their verdict right now, he would be either guilty or not guilty on those four counts, and then it would be a hung jury, meaning inconclusive result on RICO.

Meg Oliver:

So Can you remind our audience what that racketeering charge is, why the jury may be struggling with a unanimous decision? And that is the biggest one on the table, right?

Diddy’s Racketeering Charge Explained

Chris Melcher:

That’s right, Meg. This is really complicated. It’s usually for the mafia or cartels. It requires a criminal enterprise and agreement between two or more people to engage in certain types of criminal conduct. And so if he was found guilty of that, it would be potentially life in prison. But the jury is unable to reach a conclusion as of yet on that charge, but is saying it has concluded a verdict on these other charges, which to me would indicate this is really bad for Diddy because these other charges which they seem to be agreeing on really would be part of this RICO charge. To me that indicates that they’re probably more on the guilty side of things for those other charges and not on this more big collective expansive RICO case.

Meg Oliver:

Chris, how important is that charge to the prosecution’s overall case?

Life in Prison if Guilty of RICO

Chris Melcher:

Well, it would be potentially life in prison, but those other charges carry substantial prison sentences. There’s 15 year minimum mandatory sentence for the sex trafficking convictions. He would get some time for good behavior, but it would be at least 12 or 13 years in prison for Diddy if he were convicted of those charges.

Meg Oliver:

What happens if the jury is still unable to reach a verdict on count one after they continue deliberating?

If Jury Cannot Reach a Verdict

Chris Melcher:

So the judge would take that result, discharge the jury. The prosecutor would have the right to recharge him, bring a new case for RICO. But to me that would be really unusual because a lot of folks had trouble really understanding how RICO could be applied to basically one person doing this depraved conduct.

Meg Oliver:

All right. Chris Melcher, thank you so much for explaining all that.

Make sure to follow Chris on Twitter at @CA_Divorce.