It explained when people are legally required to retreat in self-defense cases.
That was a critical element of the trial and the jury struggled with the issue. Hawthorne had been charged with shooting and killing her husband, Cleveland Hawthorne, during a confrontation in a vehicle in a church parking lot in 2018 in Canton.
After roughly 25 hours of deliberations, the jurors couldn t produce a verdict and deadlocked 6-6. The trial ended with a hung jury after the panel had considered the factors and circumstances leading up to the shooting death.
The trial was emblematic of how difficult it can be for jurors to reach a consensus in self-defense cases. And jurors across the state will have more to consider in future cases with the new version of Ohio s self-defense law, also referred to as Stand Your Ground.