A federal appeals courtroom has overturned the conviction of a former U.S. consultant from Florida who had been accused of operating a sham charity
A federal appeals courtroom has overturned the conviction of a former U.S. consultant from Florida who had been accused of operating a sham charity and had served time in jail, with the judges discovering {that a} juror had been wrongfully dismissed for saying that the Holy Spirit had advised him that the previous congresswoman was harmless.
In a 7-to-Four choice on Thursday, the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta granted the ex-congresswoman, Corrine Brown, a Democrat who served in Congress for greater than 20 years, a brand new trial within the fraud case that led to her political downfall.
Ms. Brown, 74, of Jacksonville, was convicted in Could 2017 on 18 legal counts in reference to what prosecutors mentioned was her private use of greater than $300,000 in donations from a charity that she had operated. They mentioned that she had spent the cash to pay for a lavish way of life that included N.F.L. tickets and a luxurious stadium field for a Beyoncé live performance.
She was sentenced to 5 years in jail and served greater than two years earlier than being granted her launch on bond final 12 months whereas awaiting a choice on her attraction. She had beforehand been beneath supervised launch, her lawyer mentioned, due to her age, an unspecified medical situation and the danger of Covid-19.
However the courtroom’s majority discovered on Thursday that the decide who had presided over Ms. Brown’s case in U.S. District Courtroom in Jacksonville had violated her constitutional proper to a unanimous jury verdict when he eliminated a juror and changed him with an alternate throughout the panel’s deliberations.
Shortly after deliberations had begun, the juror advised the opposite members of the jury he had obtained divine steerage, prompting one other juror to deliver his feedback to the eye of Decide Timothy Corrigan.
In a majority opinion, the appeals courtroom wrote that Decide Corrigan had not had trigger to dismiss the unidentified juror, referred to as Juror No. 13, whom he had questioned concerning the function of his religion in deliberations.
“We ask whether or not Juror No. 13’s spiritual statements amounted to proof past an affordable doubt that he couldn’t render a verdict primarily based solely on the proof and the legislation, thereby disqualifying him, regardless of substantial proof that he was fulfilling the responsibility he had sworn to render,” the courtroom’s majority wrote. “They didn’t.”
It was not instantly clear if federal prosecutors would search to retry Ms. Brown, who was first elected to the U.S. Home in 1992 and served till 2017 and was one of many first African-Individuals elected to Congress from Florida. The prosecutors didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Thursday evening.
William Mallory Kent, a lawyer for Ms. Brown, mentioned in an electronic mail on Thursday evening that if there was to be a retrial within the case, it was unlikely to happen anytime quickly.
“Congresswoman Brown could be very happy with the courtroom’s choice,” Mr. Kent mentioned.
Weeks after her indictment in 2016, Ms. Brown misplaced her seat in a main election. She was convicted of mail and wire fraud and submitting false tax returns.
Based on prosecutors, Ms. Brown advised donors that the cash raised for the charity, One Door for Training, would assist college students pay for school and permit colleges to obtain computer systems.