harris: we re awaiting the verdict. historic times with a former u.s. president, donald trump, on trial in new york and after deliberating for more than four hours the jury spent last night at home. they returned about 90 minutes ago and at their request the judge is rereading part of his instructions to the jurors again they wanted it. yesterday the jury also wanted to hear again sections of prosecution witness testimony from former publisher david pecker and donald trump s ex attorney michael cohen. earlier today the jury sent a note specifically requesting those jury instructions how to weigh evidence in the case. i m harris faulkner and you are in the faulkner focus. seven men, five women considering 34 felony counts against trump. prosecutors claim the former president falsified business records to hide potentially embarrassing stories during his 2016 presidential campaign. trump s defense team argued manhattan district attorney bragg s office has failed miserably to
For consensus building. there might be no opportunity for consensus building on a court that is clearly tilted toward the right with a 6-3 conservative supermajority. yeah, that s fair. you look at this pledge, i showed what rachel and others have said about it, to diversify the court, and professor, i ll remind viewers, you re raising the next generation of legal thinkers here. law is a profession that relates to who runs the country, if you look in the congress, it s the most overrepresented profession. we know the power judges have. we live under these rules whether that s ultimately who decide who has the right to choice. yet that remains incredibly imbalanced, unrepresentative system. aba says under 5% of lawyers are black, for example. very expensive these days to go to law school. the judiciary, even less so.
Critical theory that talked about race and criminal justice that could address it. anyhoo, the rittenhouse case was influenced by the judge, who seemed to take quite a liking to mr. rittenhouse. he wouldn t let prosecutors call the people he gunned down victims and draw the names of the jurors to be dismissed so he would feel in control, because that s the luxury this young white man was afforded. it s one of many examples that outsized power judges hold. like the judge who decided last week to not send a convicted serial rapist who pleaded guilty to prison after praying about it. it s reminiscent of brock turner s 2017 sexual assault case where the judge gave him a life sentence because of the severe impact jail would have on him. we know for sure not all defendants are forwarded prayer and concern for their well being, with black men getting longer sentence for the exact same crime white men commit. as i mentioned earlier, it says something about our system that it was a shock to man
It can t be. the judge says they can t call the victims victims, but they call call the victims, looters, rioters and arsonists even though the one surviving man has not been charged with looting, rioting or arson. he s attacking the press from the bench. he s quoting bible verses to the jury. let s not forget how much power judges have over a criminal trial. at the end of a trial, the judge is going to be the one who tells the jury what the law is. yeah. exactly. he s going to tell the jury how they should think about their decision. you don t think there s going to be bias in that when he does that? but what can you do? these are both state court trials. folks, in this situation, both rittenhouse and ahmaud arbery, the defendants are the white people. and if the prosecution is not able to convict these white people, there is no appeal. it would be double jeopardy. if you get an acquittal, the