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Can I Win A Mistrial On This Case. Please Read
Hi, I live in Chicago, IL. Recently, I was found gulity in a federal court in Chicago on 2 counts of mail fraud and 2 counts of transportation of stollen property. Before the trial ended, my laywer moved for a mistrial which hasn't been filled yet. Here are some of the few reasons why he want's to file for a mistial and I'll like to know if I have a chance of winning the motion.
1: During trial, when the prosecutor was cross examining my witness who happened to be wife, he showed her piece of paper that contained some "rap lyrics" and asked her if the writing was my handwriting. Now, this piece of document is an illegal evidence cos (a) This evidence was never given to us as discovery, (b) the content of the rap lyrics had some obscene language in it and will aggravate the jury which were mostly elderly people and mostly women. This to me was intentional and will prejudice me. (C) this doc was not part of the exibit and the gov, tried to pass it in as evidence for the jury to delibrate with. My lawyer found out about it and moved for a mistrial whic hasn't been filled yet.
2: The judge allowed the prosecutor to amend the indictment after the both sides rested and jury went in to delibrate. This is why I think the change was prejudicial to me.
On the original indictment, One of the mail fraud counts stated that " On the 10th of may 01, the defendant posing as somebody else signed and picked up a package from a fed ex driver. The package was obtained by fraud". During trail, I presented evidence showing that i was at work on that particular date and time the package was signed. So, the later amended the indictment which now says that " On the 10th of may, a co-schemer picked up the package and in-turn gave it to me". Ther was no evidence from them showing who picked up the package and how I got the package. This amended indictment was given to the jury and I was also convicted on that count. There were other changes in the indictment that i didn't enclose here too.
3: The govt failed to provied us with one of their witness report untill a day after he testified. Apparently, the witness who was a secret agent has two different repots and we were only given one report which didn't contain most of the information the agent testified about. The other report which contained most of the things he testified to was turned over to us a day after he testified.
4: Lastly, most of the discoveries were never turned over to us or were turned over late. One of the things not given to us was my address organiser. We told the prosecutor that we will need the organiser to show as evidence that I din't know who the other co-schemers were cos the organiser is where I put names and numbers of evry one I know. The had a search warrant to search the organiser and they did search the organiser and found nothing incriminating in it. The prosecutor refused to turn it over to us to use as evidence. Also, when my apartment was searched, their was a video recording of the apartment wich was taken by the secret agents. I requested to see the video and the prosecutor refused to hand it over to us. Also, there was an undercover audio recording of a co-schemer which was played at the trial. The prosecutor never gave us a copy of the audio recording prior to trial.
So, anybody reading this, do you think that I have enough stuff to win a mistrial and if so, do you think I could be tried again for this same crime. Please reply if you can... Thanks, CNN
Hi, I live in Chicago, IL. Recently, I was found gulity in a federal court in Chicago on 2 counts of mail fraud and 2 counts of transportation of stollen property. Before the trial ended, my laywer moved for a mistrial which hasn't been filled yet. Here are some of the few reasons why he want's to file for a mistial and I'll like to know if I have a chance of winning the motion.
1: During trial, when the prosecutor was cross examining my witness who happened to be wife, he showed her piece of paper that contained some "rap lyrics" and asked her if the writing was my handwriting. Now, this piece of document is an illegal evidence cos (a) This evidence was never given to us as discovery, (b) the content of the rap lyrics had some obscene language in it and will aggravate the jury which were mostly elderly people and mostly women. This to me was intentional and will prejudice me. (C) this doc was not part of the exibit and the gov, tried to pass it in as evidence for the jury to delibrate with. My lawyer found out about it and moved for a mistrial whic hasn't been filled yet.
2: The judge allowed the prosecutor to amend the indictment after the both sides rested and jury went in to delibrate. This is why I think the change was prejudicial to me.
On the original indictment, One of the mail fraud counts stated that " On the 10th of may 01, the defendant posing as somebody else signed and picked up a package from a fed ex driver. The package was obtained by fraud". During trail, I presented evidence showing that i was at work on that particular date and time the package was signed. So, the later amended the indictment which now says that " On the 10th of may, a co-schemer picked up the package and in-turn gave it to me". Ther was no evidence from them showing who picked up the package and how I got the package. This amended indictment was given to the jury and I was also convicted on that count. There were other changes in the indictment that i didn't enclose here too.
3: The govt failed to provied us with one of their witness report untill a day after he testified. Apparently, the witness who was a secret agent has two different repots and we were only given one report which didn't contain most of the information the agent testified about. The other report which contained most of the things he testified to was turned over to us a day after he testified.
4: Lastly, most of the discoveries were never turned over to us or were turned over late. One of the things not given to us was my address organiser. We told the prosecutor that we will need the organiser to show as evidence that I din't know who the other co-schemers were cos the organiser is where I put names and numbers of evry one I know. The had a search warrant to search the organiser and they did search the organiser and found nothing incriminating in it. The prosecutor refused to turn it over to us to use as evidence. Also, when my apartment was searched, their was a video recording of the apartment wich was taken by the secret agents. I requested to see the video and the prosecutor refused to hand it over to us. Also, there was an undercover audio recording of a co-schemer which was played at the trial. The prosecutor never gave us a copy of the audio recording prior to trial.
So, anybody reading this, do you think that I have enough stuff to win a mistrial and if so, do you think I could be tried again for this same crime. Please reply if you can... Thanks, CNN
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