[ad_1]
At the beginning of the deliberations of one of the largest lawsuits in the history of Cook County, juror Charlene Cooke stated that she was certain that Chicago policeman, Jason Van Dyke, was guilty of of first degree murder.
Gathered around the long cherry wood table in the jury room, Cooke could not erase the image of his Van Dyke head still firing, while 17-year-old Laquan McDonald was shaking on the pavement. But not everyone agrees. The hours passed without a unanimous decision before Cooke and his fellow jurors were sequestered for the night in a suburban hotel.
The next morning, an agreement was reached to convict Van Dyke for second degree murder, concluding that he was acting out of fear for his life, even though this fear was unreasonable. But before the verdict was signed, another juror suddenly hesitated and deliberations grew, according to Cooke. Cooke, the only black juror in the 12-member panel, confessed that she had confronted the woman, who had become very emotional about Van Dyke and her family.
"Do not make this case a matter of race or sympathy," recalls Cooke, when she confided to her sworn colleague, a white woman. "We are talking about a man, not even a white man, but a man who misused his authority. He took someone's life, and it was exaggerated. "
Then Cooke said she was not backing away.
"I said to everyone," Let go of your shoes, make yourself comfortable, because we are not going anywhere.
In the first in-depth and individual interview with a juror since Van Dyke's historic conviction, Cooke told the Chicago Tribune that it was important for her to give the officer a fair trial, saying his father, the preacher, had raised him to care about people and "look at the whole picture".
"Everything is in black and white, instead of good and bad," said the 60-year-old great-grandmother of the southern suburbs.
About the fourth anniversary of McDonald's death, Ms. Cooke stated that she had been surprised to be chosen for the jury after being very clear during her interrogation by the judge and the judges. lawyers on the fact that she had been disturbed by the 16 shots fired by Van Dyke. .
Cooke, known only during the trial under the name of Jury No. 245, briefly spoke to reporters on the day of the verdict with several other jurors – all of whom remained anonymous in the context of an interview closely controlled by Judge Vincent Gaughan.
But for her interview with Tribune, she agreed to reveal her identity to the public and set no limit to what she would discuss.
Among the highlights of the four-hour interview:
• Cooke had to fight to control his emotions the day prosecutors posted graphic photos of McDonald's autopsy on a big screen. McDonald's got shots on his neck, chest, back, legs, arms, one hand – and even bullet fragments were torn off his teeth. Cooke said that she had kept her calm, focusing on maintaining meticulous notes, as she had done with each of the 44 trial witnesses.
• She found that Van Dyke's tearful testimony was repeated and unconvincing, as he described McDonald's being much more threatening than what was shown on the famous police scorecard video capturing the shooting.
• Van Dyke's comments to his partner on the way to the stage – "Oh, God, we'll have to shoot the guy," sealed his fate with the jury. "It was really a nail in his coffin," she says.
• Cooke said that officer Joseph McElligott, who was walking McDonald's for blocks while keeping his distance and waiting for the arrival of a police car equipped with a Taser, might have been justified when he had shot at the teenager wielding the knife after attacking the police car driven by his partner.
"Who shoots on someone 16 times?"
Cooke had previously been selected as a juror, but the panel did not meet in its entirety when she had inadvertently learned that she had learned that she was the only black jury member while she was listening to the radio in her car. Taking into account the judge's reprimand to avoid media coverage, she quickly put the station out of service.
"I turned it off and thought:" Oh no, it's just me, I'm the only one, "said Cooke, a FedEx driver.
Cooke did not know at the time that Van Dyke's lawyers had initially tried to remove her from the jury after she had stated during the selection process that the filming recorded by McDonald & It was "horrible".
After Van Dyke's lawyers objected to Cooke, prosecutors accused them of systematically removing Blacks from the jury. A day earlier, the defense had fired two more potential black jurors. The judge rejected the prosecution's request, but also denied the defense's request to remove Cooke for "motive". However, Van Dyke's lawyers chose not to use a discretionary strike to bounce Cooke.
Cooke said that being part of the Van Dyke jury was the most difficult task of his life. She acknowledged that her responsibility was sobering and that many members of the community saw the historical case as a matter of race. She did not agree, however.
As the only black juror, Cooke said that she understood that the focus could be on her. She was therefore determined to shake Van Dyke equitably.
READ MORE: According to Jason Van Dyke's jury, the agent's request for self-defense does not match the video »
But the evidence was not as revealing of the race as the video showing an officer firing at a troubled teenager as he walked away from the police while ignoring the order to drop the knife.
Jury guilty verdict on second degree murder and 16 battery-aggravated battery chiefs – one for every bullet fired that night – is the first such conviction for about 50 years for a Chicago police officer in a murder committed in service.
For Cooke, the verdict was not so much a compromise for her as the awareness, during the debates, that second degree murder was more appropriate under the law because Van Dyke's fear for his life was unreasonable.
"It was exaggerated. We all felt that from the first day of deliberations, "she said. "We all said," Who shoots somebody 16 times? ""
Cooke stated that other members of the jury were in agreement that Van Dyke was misrepresented on the witness stand because the video differed so much from his testimony.
"It was not the victim. Laquan was the victim, "she said. "… I just did not buy it."
& # 39; Why me? & # 39;
Cooke stated that she had often been summoned to serve on a jury, but that the Van Dyke trial was her first selection.
However, when the jury's last service notice came in the mail, Cooke said to have thrown it in the trash because the date was overlapping with his vacation plans.
The following notice, however, attracted his attention because he announced that she could be found in contempt of court if she did not show up at the Leighton courthouse.
"I did not have a choice," she said.
When appearing before the jury on September 5, Cooke said she did not pay much attention to the demonstrators in the Van Dyke case outside the courthouse.
For the next three hours, she sat in a crowded room with hundreds of potential jurors completing a long questionnaire.
She was totally unaware that the Van Dyke trial had taken place until her return a week later. She had seen the video several years ago on television, but Cooke said she had not followed the case nor its huge political spin-offs.
READ MORE: Meet the jury: in Jason Van Dyke's audience room »
On the second day of the jury selection, she was the first of her group of 10 to be recalled to the jury room, where a long table filled with lawyers, the judge and the troubled policeman waited. She met Van Dyke, 40, and was surprised to see how young he looked.
"Part of me said that I really did not want to do that because you have someone else's life in your hands," she told the Tribune. "I was wondering if I could be honest knowing (he shot) 16 times. You can knock down a bear with this number of shots.
During the interrogation, Cooke was frank with Van Dyke's lawyers about his concerns about the number of times he shot at McDonald.
"I can not lie about it," she told the judge and the lawyers. "… that's a lot of blows."
Although she said that she could be fair to the officer, Cooke returned to the courtroom, relieved, certain that she would not be chosen for the jury.
At the end of the morning, the lawyers hired three jurors, including Cooke.
"I'm like all the people of Illinois and the city of Chicago, why me? "
"A threat to society"
Cooke said the camaraderie among the jurors came easily.
During their three weeks together, they shared stories about families, jobs, travel, politics, the Cubs' end-of-season loss – anything to pass the time because they were not not allowed to talk about the evidence until the deliberations. One member brought a cake to celebrate the birthday of another juror.
The jury was a diverse group from different economic and social backgrounds, as well as residents of the city and suburbs. She said that they respected each other's opinions and that they helped each other throughout the process.
"We had 12 different people with 12 different minds who came together and made a good decision," Cooke said.
Besides her, the jury was composed of four white women, three men, three Hispanic women and one Asian. Five alternates, including two blacks, also attended the testimony but did not take part in the deliberations.
In the hearing room, Cooke stated that she preferred the work style of Special Attorney Joseph McMahon to "dramatic" interpretation by defending McDonald's actions on the night of October 2014 murder. Although race was not explicitly considered in the trial, lawyers and some witnesses made occasional references.
In his opening statement to the jurors, McMahon accused Van Dyke of having shot McDonald's because he was "a black boy" who had "the audacity to ignore the police".
Cooke said that one of the most difficult moments of the trial had occurred when prosecutors had posted graphic autopsy photos in the darkened audience hall.
The photos illustrated each gunshot wound and explained how the 16 shots burned his skin, broken bones, tore his lungs and lodged in his abdomen. A last photo – a closeup of McDonald's mouth – showed bullet fragments in the teeth.
READ MORE: The conviction for historic murder of a Chicago police officer – and the sigh of relief of a city "
Cooke said it was the only time she struggled to hold back her tears. If he had lived, McDonald would have been the same age as his 21 year old grandson.
It was clear to her that the parade of uniformed police officers who testified did not want to be there. She did not give much weight to the comments of her partner, Joseph Walsh, after learning that he had been immune to further prosecution for his testimony. Walsh is being sued for exaggerating McDonald's threat.
Cooke found McElligott – who testified that he was staying at a safe distance from McDonald's, his gun unsheathed while he was waiting for relief with a Taser – among the few credible officers on the witness stand.
"If he had killed her, I would have said," Okay, I think this guy felt threatened, "she said. "… For me, he knew that it was a child who had a problem."
Cooke stated that she was anxious that the defense begin to present evidence during the second week of her testimony, but she did not find their case credible.
The defense medical examiner maintained that McDonald's was defending most of the shots, denying what Cooke said he saw on the video. She described the reconstituted video of the defense depicting the shoot as "cartoonish" and was not moved by witnesses who spoke about a McDonald's combative multiple times, he was locked up in the center of county juvenile detention.
Regarding Van Dyke's testimony, Cooke found his tears forced. She stated that he was "cheated" at the helm, but that he also would have appeared guilty if he had not testified.
"It was a Catch-22," she said.
In closing arguments, Van Dyke's lawyer, Daniel Herbert, shook Cooke's head, suggesting that the shootings could have been avoided if the teenager had donned a scout uniform. She took the remark as suggestive racially.
"They wanted to act as if (McDonald's) was a threat to society," she said. "He was a 17-year-old kid who did stupid things."
"Let's do this job"
On the first day of the proceedings, the jury only addressed the issue of murder, she said.
Each juror sitting at the long conference table shared his opinion. An initial vote showed that most of them thought that Van Dyke was guilty of murder, but the panel at that time did not distinguish the first or second degree. Some members were undecided.
When the jury voted specifically on the issue of first degree murder, only two jurors wrote "guilty" on the torn sheet of paper. One was Cooke. The other was a retired teacher – a white man who, during the jury selection, spoke openly about his homosexuality and his church's efforts to fight racial injustices. He confirmed to the Tribune that Cooke's recollections were accurate.
On the first day, the jury studied Van Dyke's testimony and the video of the dashcam, reading it at a steady speed and in slow motion. They interrupted and saw Van Dyke advance towards the teenager while he was opening fire.
Cooke said he voted about three times that day, repeatedly consulting complex legal instructions to try to better understand the difference between first- and second-degree murder.
"We were trying to reach a conclusion," she said. "None of us wanted a suspended jury. We agreed on that. We all felt that he was guilty. But we could not decide the first or second (degree) this first day. "
She explained that the deliberations were not binding, but that the jury, tired, was happy when Judge Gaughan allowed them to suspend for the night after their request. They were told the day before to make a bag. Gaughan ordered their sequestration once the proceedings began.
Cooke said he was surprised by the level of security of the jurors. Their cell phones were confiscated earlier in the day. A few hours later, when they finally arrived at their hotel, MPs armed with police dogs searched the parking lot. They were kept away from other guests of the hotel during dinner. The electric cables of the televisions inside their room had been removed and a member of parliament was watching security in front of each door all night long.
The next morning, back in the jury room, Cooke stated that the jurors had reached a consensus early enough not to convict Van Dyke of first degree murder. Cooke stated that she had been suspended from Van Dyke's statements prior to her arrival at the scene. For her, it showed premeditation.
READ MORE: What's waiting for Jason Van Dyke: a complicated sentence, an appeal, a distant prison »
But as she read the legal instructions with a fresh eye, she realized that second-degree murder was more appropriate because of Van Dyke's role as a officer and her fear for her life, as unreasonable as she could be. be.
A Hispanic juror – who in selecting the jury said he asked to be a Chicago police officer – helped her better understand the puzzling legal instructions relating to second-degree murder, Cook said.
The jury's jury made sure that Cooke was comfortable with the decision and had nothing to say.
"Are you sure, Char?" She remembered the woman who had asked her.
But the deliberations quickly gained momentum, recalled Cooke. When the discussion focused on the issue of second degree murder, a juror began to say how concerned she felt about the officer and her family. Cooke had stayed with the woman the night before and was shocked by her sudden hesitation and tears.
"We were chosen," she said sharply to the woman. "Let's do this job."
Shortly after, after being snuggled against the forewoman, the hesitant juror agreed to sign the verdict form for second degree murder.
Their next vote on 16 battery charges aggravated with a gun would also not be an easy task, Cooke said, as jurors debated the fate that had killed McDonald's. They finally agreed that it was impossible to say for sure and unanimously condemned him for all the charges.
However, they acquitted Van Dyke of the official misconduct, finding that as a police officer he was entitled to use his weapon.
After about seven and a half hours of deliberation, Cooke said she had rang the door of the jury on Oct. 5 to announce the verdict. While the jurors were spending the time waiting to be summoned to the hearing room, Cooke stated that she and others had looked out the window in the jury room at the fifth floor that new press trucks were arriving for the announcement.
Cooke tried to focus on the judge at the time of the verdict, but she could not help but look for Van Dyke's reaction to the guilty verdict.
"He did not flinch," she said. "He was just in another world."
True and false
Despite the outcome, this case has no winners, said Cooke, who has sympathy for both parties, especially the parents of the murdered teenager who have only one grave to visit.
"The McDonald family has a tougher verdict because it's a lifetime," she said.
Since the trial, Cooke's life has slowly returned to normal. She returned to work the following week and said she was often recognized along her FedEx journey since her brief television appearance following the verdict. The reaction has been positive, even from foreigners, she said. Parents from all over the country have expressed their pride.
Cooke did not tell her father that she was on the jury until the end of the trial, fearing her preaching friends would spread the word "all over the world," she joked.
"I would like mom to be there, but I know she knows it," Cooke said of mother Nellie, who died five years ago. "I could hear him saying:" My baby. "
Cooke said that she was not afraid of retaliation, but she stayed at a trusted friend's house since the verdict. She feels safer at the moment.
She is proud of herself and her fellow jurors, convinced that they have reached the appropriate verdict.
For the jury no. 245, the case could be summed up in two parts.
And if the historical verdict helps the city heal, that's good.
Twitter @ christygutowsk1
MORE COVER OF THE VAN DYKE TRIAL:
"That was not the case": the eyewitnesses of the father and son who witnessed the shooting of Laquan McDonald explain why they came forward »
The verdict, the demonstrations, the relief of a family: how did the conviction of the officer Jason Van Dyke unfold "
Timeline of Laquan McDonald: filming, video and verdict »
[ad_2]
Source link
