Hung jury in trial of Arizona border-aid worker
This is a victory for humanity.
Jurors deadlocked 8-4 in the trial of border aid worker Scott Warren on felony human-smuggling charges, his defense attorney said.
The split was eight jurors voting not guilty and four guilty, Warrens defense attorney Greg Kuykendall said Tuesday afternoon after U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins declared a mistrial.
The government put on its best case with the full force of countless resources and 12 jurors could not agree with that case, Kuykendall told a crowd of supporters outside the federal courthouse in Tucson.
Warren was indicted on one count of conspiring to smuggle two Central American men in January 2018 and two counts of harboring them at a structure in Ajo known as The Barn, which is used as a staging area for humanitarian aid efforts.
The split among the jurors was the same on all three charges, Kuykendall said.
Federal prosecutors, who would not comment after the trial, can choose whether to retry Warren. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office, Glenn McCormick, declined to comment on whether the government would do so. Collins set a status conference on the case for July 2.
https://tucson.com/news/local/jury-deadlocks---for-acquittal-in-trial-of-border/article_0c258f5b-3a05-5853-8146-9f4a4533b2ec.htm