Comments on: A Guest Post From The Africa Sting Jury Foreman

By: DJ

DJ — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:35:35 +0000

No one has mentioned that this was most likely set up only to prove that the gun industry is evil and corrupt, and therefore needs more government controls. Sounds like another Obama “under the radar” gun control operation to me.

By: Beth

Beth — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:22:49 +0000

I was in the jury pool for this and dreaded the thought of a trial that, at the time, was said to probably last 8-10 weeks. 3.5 months is a very long time to be on a jury and I can imagine how hard it must have been to keep everything straight with so many defendants. I would have come out very angry that my valuable time and tax dollars had been wasted on this. I hope the writer of this post is not the very nice non-practicing attorney I sat next to on the hard bench for three days while the jury was being selected and who I waved to in relief when I was excused!

By: Concerned

Concerned — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:06:54 +0000

I agree with much of what has already been said in the comments. What bothers me, though, is the description of jury deliberations. It sounds like most jurors couldn’t follow the evidence and based their decisions on irrelevant impressions or mistaken understanding. I value the the right to trial by jury in criminal cases, but it seems to that as applied me the current system is a poor vehicle for assessing guilt. Maybe that’s OK?

By: john

john — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:23:26 +0000

Many thanks to the jury foremaan for his comments. Among the service it provides is the clarity around what appears to be the conclusion of virtually all obervers and jurors. This case was poorly designed, poorly supervised, poorly executed and lacked integrity throughout. The FBI is staffed with honest and competent people…but in this case those assigned were immature and motivated by all the wrongs things…fame, “winning”, (poorly defined) self-promotion, headlines…the list goes on. They were incompetent, immature and not acting consistent with the values of their agency and colleagues…fine people. A lesson can be taught at their academy around all not to do in such cases. What was done to some, if not all defendants is appalling, disgraceful…quite sad, and what was taken from them can never truly or fully be given back or repaired. When are over zealous prosectors held accountable?..particularly those that came up with this scheme with this informant? AN informant that ran the case and the agents…not vice versa. As came out in trial, the treatment upon arrest was equally disgraceful and unnecessary..swat teams to arrest these people after they were screened with metal detectors…homes survellied and then searched with only a woman and child in it raided by swat teams…? overkill at its worst and designed for headlines and nothing more. Hopefully the Government will heed the advise of the foreperson…enough damage has been done to people…enough. In particular,the trial allowed any objectibe observer to see that defendant Patrick Caldwell possesses more integrity in his fingertip than the entire investigative and prosecution team…how does this happen in the USA?

By: Flash Bang

Flash Bang — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:32:04 +0000

A very well written and well reasoned piece of writing. I had the opportunity to watch the proceedings on a number of occasions and I was shocked and horrified at how the prosecutors were conducting themselves during the trial. Giggling, laughing, passing notes- the stuff you’d expect from 5th grade children, and rude ones at that. Not for a moment did I see the prosecution team taking into consideration the fact that the 6 men and 1 woman sitting less than 10 feet away from them were fighting for their lives and livelihoods. The entire process, from ‘sting’ inception to prosecution was a game to the FBI and DOJ- and a sick one at that. I’d very much like to shake the foreman’s hand, as well as those others on the jury that told the government NO!! YOU CANT DO THIS TO PEOPLE!! Bravo, jury. Bravo for not being blinded by the mountain of lying FBI agents and falsified documentation the government used in a desperate attempt to create the Hollywood script they were trying to orchestrate.

By: Hope

Hope — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:24:23 +0000

I would like to personally thank this foreman for his service… It’s a relief to see that this juror took this case seriously, saw the defendants as human beings and that their lives were/are at stake. The DOJ is now 0-10 at the end of two trials in the sting, but this shouldn’t be about about winning or losing to the DOJ… if the DOJ & FBI truly want justice, they’ll stop trying to bankrupt these men and their families at the taxpayer’s expense just to save face and allow the 7 mistrials to go away by dropping all charges. Obviously the entire DOJ/FBI is not at fault here, but there are clearly a select group that are pushing to keep this going and I pray that those whom hold positions of necessary power take notice and drop the balance of the charges for the mistrials, if not the entire sting. The next trial will begin 2/28/12 The lead FBI agent in this case (Chris Forvour) said in a text message to another agent during this investigation that he wanted to make the front page of a certain well known journal with this sting and I’m assuming he thought that’d be good for his own career… I’d like to know if he’s seen enough headlines, yet and was it worth it at the expense of innocent people’s careers, their reputations, and countless hours away from their families? Perhaps what Forvour assumed would have happened was for these men (and woman) to have shriveled up and hoped for the best with plea agreements…