Baltimore Mayor May Count on Sympathetic Jurors
If Mayor Sheila Dixon goes to trial before a Baltimore jury, it might include some of the best friends she could hope to find.
The city's jurors — often poor, uneducated and distrustful of police and prosecutors — have historically been sympathetic to defendants, most of whom are black.
"Jurors in Baltimore city, typical jurors, they render verdicts from the gut," said Warren A. Brown, a city defense attorney for more than 20 years. "To hell with the law, to hell with the facts, they will render a verdict that they think is fair, is right."
And while Dixon isn't your typical defendant — among other things, the city's first black female mayor is accused of stealing gift cards meant for needy families and treating herself to fur coats and pricey hotel stays on her developer-boyfriend's tab — her attorneys are already playing to potential jurors by portraying the case as a witch hunt by the state prosecutor...
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