Yesterday we had the lull with nothing much happening but the jury asking to go home early and the jury forewoman being granted permission to take a copy of the jury instructions home. All the signs point to a divided jury. I very much doubt any of the jurors will want this to go into the weekend, so today we will likely have the storm after the lull. Most likely outcome: a hung jury and a mistrial. Next most likely outcome: acquittals on some charges and deadlocks on others, in which case there is a mistrial on some charges only. Next most likely outcome: acquittals on all charges. Next most likely outcome: a mixture of of acquittals and convictions, the hallmark of a horsetrading jury. Least likely outcome: straight convictions. I think this will be announced before lunch. By now the jurors are sick of deliberating and probably are not filled with kindly thoughts towards jurors who disagree with them. They want out of what has probably been an unpleasant experience for most of them.
Go here for a live feed today with attorney commentary.
A recap of the nothing burger that was yesterday:
So, the jury forewoman (which gender I already determined in fact from the ornamental capital “E” on “Event 1,” typical of teen girls’ writing in greeting cards—I know she is not a teen),shows a great deal, as well as the rest of her writing. She uses garlands, which often mean in graphology-terms, traits like childlike, listening, understanding (why she was initially selected), but on the negative side, one who can be stubborn, childish and a tendency to focus on a specific data point, exclude unwelcome facts, and refuse to “see the bigger picture.”
This person is not an orderly thinker, which is clear from the internally jumbled and scrunched writing, and sorry, I will say it, is not very intellectual. That’s determined by measuring the capitals versus the miniscules, and her so-called capitals are little more than the miniscules (or non-capitals). Skilled graphologists can make a fairly accurate estimate of a person’s IQ just based on this measurement alone.
Further evidencing that the jury forewoman is not attentive to detail and key facts is the misspelling of Joshua Rosenbaum‘s name. (The man was killed: if data means anything, one would think you could get the spelling right. ) She doesn’t care: she’s fixated on something else. (She may early on have determined she just doesn’t like Rittenhouse, and the rest of the facts are going to be ordered according to that decision.)
But as Glen Frei remarks (“Rogue Juror,” TAC), it appears she is dialed in on the slide where Rittenhouse put down the extinguisher and picked up his gun as he was being attacked by Rosenbaum. (That was a prosecution point.). She’s gripped on the one single instant, and true to form, not seeing the whole sequence in context of split-second decisions.
Also, the fact that she asked to take home jury instructions and re-read them at this late point is very telling. As Glenn Frei says, this is a problem. I would interpret that action in relationship to the writing, as her stubborn fixation on a damn-the-facts position she’s taken, and looking for support in the pages and pages of instructions: Which are inherently contradictory anyway.
I suspect also that she is the lone holdout at this point (Since she asked to take home the instructions by herself, and she’s doing her own decisioning), along with others’ suspicions, but because her decision-making is not based on the whole circumstances in facts, she’s not going to change her mind: stubbornness wins out.
I’m skeptical of graphology (and do not think there are psychologists who pursue it as a research program).
The handwriting does not look feminine or masculine
The person who wrote it is imperious, as Frei notes. Betting a school administrator.
We know who juror 54 is Art, and she is female and the forewoman. I share your skepticism as to hand writing analysis.
I’d assume that “not guilty” jurors don’t get worn down to vote “guilty”, but that the opposite is more common. Is that correct? I just can’t picture saying, “ok, if we can’t agree on it after all this time, let’s just send someone to prison”.
Second question, is there a chance the prosecution wouldn’t retry the case after a mistrial? It’d be hard to see them believing they could get a win on the second go-around. But maybe there’s too much political pressure and fear.
Best case scenario: acquital on a few accounts, hung jury on the others.
And then Rittenhouse hires high-powered attorneys for the retrial.
No. They shouldn’t, but they’re locked in at this point. Only an acquital or appellate reversal will shut them down.
@Steve – I’d send you some of my writing just to see what you’d come up with. 😉
I hope the rest around here have said a prayer for the boy. I am in the process of reading a book by an Orthodox Priest and the chapter I just finished talked a lot about “justice” and what “the king’s justice” meant to our ancestors. About how it was often the case of chaos vs order.
How little has changed for out time after all these centuries, right?
Dear God, please let Your holy justice prevail in this case and spare Kyle. Bring order back to our land and save us from the chaos so many are wishing.
Nate, your comments are probably much more germane. The boy’s life hangs in the balance, and very few seem to care.
As a self-admitted amateur at handwriting analysis, I’m reminded by experts: It is like preparing for a football team with a game plan based on the fact you know “they run all the time.”Your predictions are that they will run. And on game day, they pass all over the field—maybe with a few runs , and beat you. Most people can’t separate predicted tendencies from outcomes. “Aha, they didn’t do what you said.”
Two other comments on the handwriting of the jury forewoman (which will undoubtedly drive the skeptics mad):
She ends her “y’s” with a “stabbing downstroke.” Generally this is a person that has a lot of hidden anger (as opposed to rounded loops): it’s a strong indication of a passive aggressive personality. She’s likely to go home with the football.
Also her writing is highly vertical, as opposed to slanted forward or rearward: verticality tends to indicate a step-by-step reasoning process. But the other indications, such as the garlands, the ornamental capital, and the stabbing downstroke, point to an immature person at least emotionally. It would tend to suggest this person was going to get inwardly angry and stop being rational, even though she tries to sort things out step-by-step.
But she isn’t very intellectually inclined. Sorry, I said it twice.
FYI – The jury has reached a verdict in the Rittenhouse case, 11/18/21, 12:08 pm Wisconsin time.
Pray, Nate et al, pray.
”Your predictions are that they will run. And on game day, they pass all over the field—maybe with a few runs , and beat you. Most people can’t separate predicted tendencies from outcomes. “Aha, they didn’t do what you said.”
I think you’re going to have a hard time showing correlation between scores on standard personality tests and features of handwriting. I suspect you’ll have a hard time finding academic and professional literature published in the last 40 years.
NOT GUILTY
I am VERY pleasantly surprised to find that the rule of law isn’t completely dead!