This all exemplifies my long-standing plea that hung juries should result in an automatic dismissal of charges.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Spector#2003–2009:_Murder_conviction
Spector remained free on $1 million bail while awaiting trial, which began on March 19, 2007. Presiding Judge Larry Paul Fidler allowed the proceedings in Los Angeles Superior Court to be televised.[79] On September 26, 2007, Fidler declared a mistrial because of a hung jury (ten to two for conviction).[80][81]
......
The retrial of Spector for murder in the second degree began on October 20, 2008,[88] with Judge Fidler again presiding; the retrial was not televised. Spector was once again represented by attorney Jennifer Lee Barringer.[89] The case went to the jury on March 26, 2009, and 18 days later, on April 13, the jury returned a guilty verdict.[90][91] Additionally, Spector was found guilty of using a firearm in the commission of a crime, which added four years to the sentence.[92] He was immediately taken into custody and, on May 29, 2009, was sentenced to 19 years to life in the California state prison system.
(Bolding mine.)
See also, for color:
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mistrial-declared-in-phil-spector-murder-caseBoth trials were for second-degree murder.
Why a dismissal?
Because my layman's instinct says that if a prosecutor cannot achieve a conviction at a trial, as evidenced by the 10-to-2 "guilty" vote in this case, reasonable doubt has
ipso facto been achieved in the minds of two (in this case) of the jurors.
This, barring external evidence of jury tampering or perjury of the jurors during the selection process and the like.
My case for automatic dismissal rides on simpy that: A reasonable doubt has been demonstrated, so let the alleged dirty rotten coprophagic scoundrel go.
So don't play a coin-tossing game with a new trial and new jurors and thereby boost your conviction record.
Remember "Blackstone's Ratio":
It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.
Terry "just sittin' on the sidelines and thinkin'," 230RN
