Hunter Biden Prosecutors Might’ve Already Lost the Jury

The Hunter Biden trial beginning in Wilmington, Delaware, is a poster-child case for potential jury nullification.

Biden, the solely surviving son of President Joe Biden, is being tried for possessing a firearm whereas being a person of unlawful medicine or drug addict and for mendacity about the similar on a purchase order kind when he purchased a gun. On the floor, the prosecution—a fruits of greater than a half-decade of investigation by Special Counsel David Weiss—would seem to have a slam dunk case as a result of there is no such thing as a actual dispute he purchased the gun, or that he had a drug dependancy round the time he purchased the gun.

But beneath the floor, the case is ripe for the phenomenon of jury nullification.

The strict definition of jury nullification is when a jury has decided {that a} defendant is responsible past an inexpensive doubt—however both rejects the proof or refuses to use the legislation as a result of the jury “wants to send a message about some social issue that is larger than the case itself, or because the result dictated by law is contrary to the jury’s sense of justice, morality, or fairness.”

Let’s be clear. Juries should not supposed to try this. They are imagined to convict if the proof proves guilt past an inexpensive doubt and acquit if it doesn’t.

But whereas the definition of nullification conjures up photos of a jury making a social justice-inspired speech in refusing to convict, the actuality is sort of completely different as a result of the jury doesn’t must make such a blatant assertion. Rather, the sense that jurors might have of unfairness could be evidenced in an acquittal—regardless of robust proof of guilt. (There’s additionally, in fact, the chance of a hung jury.)

What which means is expert protection counsel can convey out the components of unfairness with out having to particularly ask a jury to disregard proof or the legislation, whereas expert prosecutors want to protect in opposition to the sort of proof and testimony which will result in nullification.

Thus far, the trial is revealing an outmatched prosecution, which has already blundered into a few minefields. Defense counsel Abbe Lowell is a seasoned high-profile protection counsel who has defended Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and acquired former presidential candidate John Edwards acquitted on marketing campaign finance prices (introduced by then-DOJ lawyer Jack Smith).

In the opening by the Biden protection group, Lowell centered on the requirement that the false statements on the gun possession kind needed to be “knowing”—a time period that Lowell claimed the prosecution tried to keep away from in its opening. The utility of this protection is that it really works synergistically with the results of Biden’s admitted drug dependancy affecting his decision-making talents, in addition to necessitating a deep dive into the particulars of his dependancy and the particular timeline of when he was utilizing crack cocaine and his efforts to get clear.

The protection seems to be organising a protection concept that, on the particular date Biden purchased the gun, he genuinely believed he was not an addict as a result of he had simply completed an 11-day rehabilitation program.

This sort of proof is prone to have a robust impact on many jurors. One such impact might even have been seen when a juror started crying throughout the protection opening assertion. While there is no such thing as a means of realizing precisely what brought about that response, it might definitely be an instance of the emotional empathy some jurors might really feel for the dependancy cycle that Hunter Biden skilled, in addition to his previous traumas of dropping his mom and sister in a childhood automotive crash that he and his brother Beau survived. And then there was Beau’s loss of life from mind most cancers in 2015.

That drug dependancy is a possible double-edged sword for each protection and prosecution was acknowledged by the central position it performed in the voir dire course of for jury choice.

Among the questions requested of the jury pool was a request for a present of fingers if any potential juror and/or their households had been affected by drug dependancy. According to reporting, all however a couple of of the pool raised their fingers and the seated jury, together with alternates, is about half-composed of those that had that have with drug dependancy.

The mere asking of the query was already a win for the protection. Or, quite, it was a lose-lose query for the prosecution, as a result of the response was so overwhelming it made it unattainable to remove all who raised their fingers. However, it knowledgeable the protection precisely which jurors had that first-hand expertise with drug dependancy.

The query additionally made it plain to all of the jurors that drug dependancy was central to the case, and maybe elevated that issue above different components, resembling mendacity on the gun buy kind.

The prosecution seems to be attempting to bludgeon its means by the protection assertion that on the date Biden crammed out the gun kind he genuinely believed he was addiction-free by placing on intensive testimony about the extent of his dependancy. To this finish, the prosecution selected to play excerpts from his autobiography, Beautiful Things, allowing the jury to hear Biden talking in the audiobook model, describing his descent into drug dependancy following the loss of life of Beau Biden from mind most cancers.

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The painful episodes being recounted brought about Hunter’s sister—Ashley Biden—to dab at her eyes as the audio performed and at occasions lean her head into that of her mom, first girl Jill Biden, as they listened. At one level, as Hunter Biden’s voice was performed for over an hour describing what was reported as the “darkest and most dangerous moments of his addiction,” the first girl draped her arm round Ashley Biden’s shoulders.

The prosecution is banking on the concept that these excerpts represent confessions by Biden that he should have been knowingly mendacity when he acknowledged on the gun software that he was not a drug addict that day. But holding apart the problem of proving what was in his thoughts that day, there may be the hazard that placing on such probably heart-wrenching proof might simply trigger the jury to sympathize with the defendant—in addition to his household—to the extent that they are going to be inclined to search for methods to nullify the prosecution’s concept of the case.

But if there may be an acquittal in the case, then the path to it might have been specified by the prosecution’s personal opening assertion.

There, prosecutor Derk Hines asserted to the jury that “addiction may not be a choice” however shopping for a gun is a alternative and that Hunter Biden “isn’t charged with possessing drugs.” Following up on this, Hines additionally acknowledged, “We would not be here today if he was just a drug addict.”

These phrases might nicely come again to hang-out the prosecution for they seemingly increase in the jury’s thoughts two questions. First, they might marvel why if the prosecution believes dependancy isn’t a alternative then how can an addict make “knowing” choices. The prosecution is asking them to conclude that typically drug addicts can’t management themselves however different occasions they will. But the second level is maybe most harmful for the prosecution.

The authorities’s assertion that Hunter Biden “would not be here today if he was just a drug addict” shouts the quiet half out loud—as Hunter Biden is clearly not “just a drug addict.” He is the son of a sitting president and, by this assertion, the prosecution all however invitations the jury to marvel if some other drug addict would have been charged in these circumstances. That’s the way you nullify juries.