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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Jurors in Alex Murdaugh’s homicide trial were given to peer for themselves the rural looking property the place his spouse and son had been killed, following in the footsteps of different juries that experience seen crime scenes in circumstances that captured the country’s consideration.
Crime scene visits via juries are slightly uncommon however have passed off in plenty of different high-profile prosecutions, together with the 1995 homicide trial of O.J. Simpson and final 12 months’s trial of Florida faculty shooter Nikolas Cruz.
Murdaugh, the disgraced South Carolina lawyer, used to be convicted of homicide Thursday in the taking pictures deaths of his spouse and son at canine kennels close to their house on June 7, 2021, as his occupation and budget had been crumbling. Murdaugh has denied any position in the deadly shootings.
Here’s a take a look at the follow of getting juries view crime scenes and a few different notable circumstances:
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A JURY VISITS A CRIME SCENE?
In a prison trial, each the protection and the prosecution can request that juries view a crime scene and it’s normally as much as the pass judgement on to make a decision whether or not to approve it. In many circumstances, it doesn’t occur as a result of the trial is happening years later, so the scene has modified and taking jurors there may supply a misconception of what came about.
In some circumstances, on the other hand, crime scene visits can also be helpful to present jurors a way of distance or different bodily options that don’t come throughout in footage and different proof offered in courtroom, stated Steven Benjamin, a Richmond, Virginia, protection lawyer who isn’t interested by the Murdaugh case.
“It permits a 3D appreciation for what has otherwise been a two-dimensional presentation in court,” stated Benjamin, a previous president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
When jurors are taken to the scene of a crime, they’re normally suggested to not percentage their ideas with one every other as a result of deliberations don’t start till all sides are completed presenting proof. The lawyers are in most cases provide however recommended via the pass judgement on to not say or indicate the rest to the jurors, Benjamin stated.
“What it is not is a scene reenactment,” Benjamin stated.
WHY DID MURDAUGH’S TEAM WANT JURORS TO GO THERE?
The distance between the kennels the place the our bodies had been discovered and the house the place Murdaugh stated he were sound asleep used to be a key element of the trial.
Only 16 mins handed between when the sufferers stopped the usage of their cell phones and Murdaugh left the space about 1,100 ft (335 meters) from the crime scene. Defense lawyer Dick Harpootlian stated the jury had to see the sprawling 1,700-acre (690-hectare) assets to “appreciate the spatial issues.”
Prosecutors adversarial the discuss with as a result of the scene had modified considerably in the 20 months since the killings. Trees planted between the Murdaugh house and the kennels grew taller and thicker over that duration — blocking off the line of sight they alleged would have allowed Murdaugh to peer the kennel lighting fixtures when he stated he returned from visiting his mom.
Bill Nettles, a prison protection legal professional and previous South Carolina U.S. lawyer who used to be now not interested by the case, stated the discuss with may give jurors a “sense of scale” to make more-informed choices about the timeline and different questions — similar to whether or not Murdaugh can have heard the gunshots throughout the grounds — that arose all over the trial.
“I can see how both sides can benefit from a jury seeing that,” Nettles stated. “In the interest of justice, it is probably a good thing for them to see it.”
IN WHAT OTHER CASES HAVE JURORS VISITED THE CRIME SCENE?
The maximum notable fresh instance used to be the sentencing trial for Cruz, who pleaded to blame to killing 14 scholars and 3 workforce participants at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The discuss with if that’s the case used to be asked via prosecutors, who stated jurors had to see the scene to know the horror of what came about. The protection vigorously objected, arguing that taking the jurors to the faculty would play to their feelings and that footage and movies had been enough.
The construction were sealed off and left in large part untouched — with the exception of for the elimination of sufferers’ our bodies and a few non-public pieces — sooner than jurors visited final 12 months and retraced the steps Cruz took on Feb. 14, 2018. Inside, they noticed bullet holes in partitions and shards of glass from home windows shattered via gunfire. Large swimming pools of dried blood nonetheless stained study room flooring.
Nearly 3 many years previous, jurors in the Simpson trial toured the scene the place prosecutors alleged that he killed his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her buddy, Ronald Goldman. Jurors noticed the spot the place Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman’s bloodied our bodies had been discovered on the walkway main as much as her Brentwood condo.
Prosecutor Marcia Clark stated at the time that taking jurors to peer the slim, confined walkway would display “the reason why one person could accomplish this, and how the victims were cornered.”
Simpson used to be acquitted of the killings however used to be later discovered accountable for the deaths in a civil swimsuit.
In 2003, jurors went to the North Carolina house of novelist Michael Peterson the place his spouse’s frame used to be discovered at the backside of a staircase. Defense lawyers argued that Kathleen Peterson had died in a 2001 unintended fall.
“They were very curious about how far up they can go up that stairwell,” stated Raleigh News & Observer reporter Demorris Lee, who went with the jurors, according to a Court TV report. “Many of them went up to about the fourth, fifth step and would turn back and look, even wave their hands to see, look behind them to see if they can fall or if they can possibly catch themselves.”
That trial ended with Peterson’s conviction for homicide, however a pass judgement on later ordered a brand new trial, and Peterson entered a distinct plea in 2017 acknowledging prosecutors had sufficient proof to convict him of manslaughter.
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Richer reported from Boston. Associated Press reporter Terry Spencer contributed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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James Pollard is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit nationwide carrier program that puts reporters in native newsrooms to file on undercovered problems.
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