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Appeals Court To Decide If Cyril Wecht Has Retrial

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Aug 4, 2008 5:36 pm US/Eastern

Appeals Court To Decide If Cyril Wecht Has Retrial

Reporting
Harold Hayes
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― A spirited give and take between a panel of federal appeals court judges and lawyers for the government and Dr. Cyril Wecht's defense team shed little light on whether a Wecht retrial will be allowed to proceed.
 
Wecht's lawyers argue their client faces double jeopardy because the trial judge did not follow proper procedure when he declared a mistrial.

Appeals Judge D. Brooks Smith told Wecht's appeals lawyer, David Fine that he personally thought trial Judge Arthur Schwab did not comply with the rules governing the handling of a mistrial. But Smith wasn't sure that was enough of a constitutional problem to stop a retrial.

Schwab polled the jury the first time they said they were deadlocked on April 3, but didn't poll them the second time on April 8, and ordered the lawyers not to interrupt him as he declared a mistrial.

Appeals Judge Michael Fisher, the former Pennsylvania Attorney General, asked how anyone would know whether there was a difference between the jury's report that they were "hopelessly" deadlocked the first time, but "essentially" deadlocked by the time the Wecht trial ended in mistrial.

But the judges also asked Wecht's lawyers whether they ran the risk of coercing a jury verdict if they had been prodded to come up with a partial verdict- as the defense argued at one point.

"Well they were very vigorous in the questioning of both sides," said Wecht defense attorney Jerry McDevitt. "They usually are and now they're going to deliberate and that's what we're going to let them do ... I wouldn't presume to speak for the court. I'll let them decide."

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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