en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sal_Magluta
1 correction found
After four intense months, the jury returned a not guilty verdict on all charges
That overstates what the jury did. In the 1996 case, the judge entered judgments of acquittal on seven counts, and the jury acquitted Magluta on the remaining counts.
Full reasoning
The overall outcome of the 1996 federal drug case was acquittal on all 24 drug-related counts, but not all of those acquittals came from the jury.
In the Eleventh Circuit's published opinion in United States v. Magluta (2005), the court explained that in the earlier 1996 case, "the district court granted judgments of acquittal on seven counts, and the jury acquitted Magluta of all of the remaining ones."
So it is inaccurate to say that the jury returned not-guilty verdicts on all charges. More precisely, some counts were dismissed by the judge through judgments of acquittal, and the jury acquitted on the rest.
1 source
- United States v. Magluta, 418 F.3d 1166 (11th Cir. 2005)
In that earlier case the district court granted judgments of acquittal on seven counts, and the jury acquitted Magluta of all of the remaining ones.