One of the key motions before this morning's closing arguments involved a defense motion asking that jurors be able to consider a lesser charge of "involuntary manslaughter." Judge Brown turned it down flat.
He did though add the charge of murder .. meaning jurors will have the option of convicting Cutts on either Aggravated Murder or Murder in the deaths of Jessie Marie Davis and her unborn child, Chloe.
A conviction of Aggravated Murder would bring the possibility of the death penalty; that would also set the stage for a second trial to determine whether Cutts should die for his actions. A conviction for murder would allow Cutts to escape the death penalty and set up a life sentence scenerio. There are still lesser charges of abuse of a corpse, burglary, and child endangering that many feel are locks as guilty verdicts.
Jurors have been deliberating for just a short time now ... but as we've seen so far, everything in this trial has gone faster than we expected .. so it's no lock that they'll spend the night sequested in a hotel. My experience with other juries like this is that the judge will look for the jury foreman to tell him when they are ready to go to the hotel or if they want to keep deliberating into the evening.
I've got my boots on ... ready to head to the courthouse in the snow .. be it tonight, tomorrow or Wednesday.
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Did the judge decide after hearing both the prosecurer's and defence attorneys information,that there was NOT enough proof that he be found guilty as charged?? This confused me, I thought that the jury determined his fate. Why give a cold blooded killer a loop for him to slip through - after all he didn't give Jessie or her baby any life saving loop to slip through!!!!
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