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Lincoln Daily News
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No decision and no statement made by jury in I-55 crash mistrial

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To the editor:

I served on the jury for the trial held in the Logan County Courthouse from January 13 - 17, 2020.  The case concerned a crash that resulted in the death of two children.  The crash took place on I-55 at 2:58 p.m. on July 31, 2016 nearing Atlanta, IL.

Following the judge declaring the case a mistrial, a news release was sent to media by the law office defending the driver of the truck. 

The news release said the jury made the statement that they were “hopelessly deadlocked.” 

As foreman and spokesperson for the jury, the statement in news release "announcing that they were hopelessly deadlocked and could not reach a verdict," is false. 

The jury was still actively deliberating when the judge called the jury back into the court room.  In front of everyone in the court room, the judge thanked the jury for their service and then said that he was declaring a mistrial.

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Again, the jury had not reached a consensus.  The jury was still deliberating when called to the court room.  The jury made no statement.  It was the judge’s decision to end the jury process. 

Respectfully,

Jury foreman Elizabeth Tanner

Editor’s note: Lincoln Daily News did receive the news release sent out by the defense legal team.  We recognized it came from the defense and that it presented only one position.  The position of the defense.

The news release also said that the case would be retried. 

Without hearing from the prosecution, publishing the news release would give favor to the defense, and thereby constitute biased news reporting.

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