the.com/mistrial
A courtroom's undo button, costing months of work and one stubborn juror's afternoon.
means A trial rendered invalid before a verdict, usually due to a procedural error, jury deadlock, or misconduct, forcing the proceedings to be abandoned or started over.
from A transparent compound: the prefix 'mis-' (meaning 'wrongly' or 'badly,' from Old English) bolted onto 'trial,' which comes through Anglo-French 'trier,' 'to try, test, or sift' — the same root that gives us 'try.' So a mistrial is, quite literally, a trying gone wrong.
- hung jury
- One holdout can derail twelve people's verdict
- double jeopardy
- Mistrials often let prosecutors retry the case
- common causes
- Tainted jurors, bad evidence, or attorney misconduct
- costly do-over
- Restarts trials worth millions in legal fees
bill cosby pennsylvania case — 2017 mistrial when jury deadlocked 10-2 on sexual assault charges in montgomery county
michael jackson 2005 trial — judge declared mistrial on one count when jury couldn't unanimously agree on child abuse charges in santa maria