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COMMENTARY – FIRST AMENDMENT – NEWS ANALYSIS
Lexington, Ky.
Former UK student, Jacob Heil, was found not guilty of reckless homicide but will pay a $500 fine for DUI conviction.
The jury basically had two questions to decide:
- Was defendant legally impaired (drunk) at the time of the accident?
- Was defendant’s alleged impairment (drunk) the cause of the accident resulting in the death of Marco Shemwell; or, did toddler Marco Shemwell step into the street and cause his own death?
Testimony of three eyewitnesses provided reasonable doubt that the death of Marco Shemwell was due to alleged driver impairment. Three different witnesses testified that:
- Victim, toddler Marco Shemwell, stepped off the grass strip into the street.
- Marco’s father was seen trying to pull him out of the street.
- Defendant Jacob Heil’s vehicle never jumped the curb nor entered the pedestrian area.
Fortunately, in this case, the jury was able to understand what constitutes reasonable doubt.
However, most jurors do NOT understand the principle of reasonable doubt; and, this ignorance causes many technically innocent people to be convicted of crimes they should not be convicted of.
Only jurors may determine the credibility of each witness, that is, whether a witness’ testimony is believable.
When different witnesses provide testimony contrary to each other, the jury has to decide which witness is more credible and what testimony is more relevant to the issues.
Lengthy deliberations usually indicate possible acquittal; or, may indicate hot differences about guilt among the jurors.
CourtTV anchor, attorney Vinny Politan’s rule predicts it will take one-hour of deliberation per week of trial length.
Here, the Politan Deliberation Time Rule was well blown out because the jury took about eight hours to reach a verdict in a four day trial.
Kentucky law allows for up to five years in state prison on a reckless homicide conviction. A first DUI conviction has a significant fine and no likely jail time.
Case History
Heil was arrested in 2018 at the age of 18 for driving under the influence when he allegedly caused the death of a toddler, Marco Shemwell on Cooper Drive near campus where a football game was about to start.
At age 21, Jacob Heil’s trial began about three years later on Monday 11/11/2021. Jury deliberation began after lunch on Thursday 11/14/2021.
Heil admitted to police that he had consumed two beers and the video of his interrogation at roadside looks like a young man appropriately upset at the death of a pedestrian.
Voir dire is a process of interrogating potential jurors under oath during jury selection.
Lawyers on each side ask probing questions to determine whether a juror has an obvious disqualification due to possible predisposition to either side.
Each side gets three preemptive strikes (removal of jury candidates) without needing to explain why they want a particular juror removed.
