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Comment by bsnnkv | Hacker News Reader

Reading between the lines a little here with this submission, I'm assuming it's related to the case of the UnitedHealthcare CEO.

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Clearly. I've heard people claim that no jury would convict him, because everybody knows someone who was screwed by their insurance provider. A sad indictment of the scammy nature of the US health insurance industry.

I wonder what a good strategy would be for a prosecutor in such a case. Can they split the trial into several? Let's say one for using a silencer on a gun in New York City. This is a felony. The murder is clearly another one. Maybe the first should be tried in a state court, while the second in federal (the perpetrator traveled across state lines to carry the hit, on a victim who was also coming from a different state, so this might be a federal case?).

Yes, but the existence of the Wikipedia page and the act of doing it itself in a jury were a pre existing condition

On a serious note, yes it is. However, it is very interesting as a European learning about a mechanism that allows the jury to say we believe someone has done that, but we don't believe it should be guilty

Does Europe not have jury trials?

Europe isn't a single place. Some countries do, some don't. I don't think I've ever heard of a jury trial in Netherland, but France, Belgium and the UK apparently still have it.

Some countries in Europe also don't have the same concept of double jeopardy that the US has and allow retrials even if someone is found not guilty. Off the top of my head, in England you can be retried for murder if new evidence is presented as many as ten times.

Scotland even has the famous "third verdict" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_proven

Is this remarkable? I see "acquitted by lack of evidence" in India and think its the same.

In the US "acquitted by lack of evidence" is not a legally distinct verdict, just guilty or not guilty, even if the jury provides justification.

It's more of a common law thing (but not exclusively).

The first case that came to my mind was Daniel Penny.

Not Byron De La Beckwith, or the guys who killed Emmett Till?

Those are definitely Penny's forerunners and peers.

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