Law professor Jonathan Turley came up with the term coup de grace instruction to describe what happened since it is apparently unprecedented in criminal justice.
"Merchan just delivered the coup de grace instruction," Turley tweeted on X.
"He said that there is no need to agree on what occurred. They can disagree on what the crime was among the three choices. Thus, this means that they could split 4-4-4 and he will still treat them as unanimous."
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey called what Judge Merchan did "absolute insanity," adding in his own tweet that the jury was not even given a copy of the instructions.
"I've tried many jury trials in my day," Bailey wrote. "You give jurors paper instructions every time."
"How are 12 jurors supposed to remember the elements necessary
for each of the 34 felony counts? This is an illicit, witch-hunt
prosecution."...<<<Read More>>>...