"Reason why we aren’t trying more terror cases? The jury comes back to courtroom with verdict of not guilty and three jurors allegedly jump up and say “that is not the verdict!”"
Judge Declares Mistrial For Most Defendants In Muslim Charity Trial - News Story - KXAS | Dallas:
"The jury found one former Holy Land leader, Mohammed El-Mezain, not guilty on 31 of 32 counts. Two other defendants were initially acquitted on most or all charges, but in a confusing courtroom scene, three jurors disputed the verdict.
...The mistrial came after two months of testimony in the biggest terror-financing trial since Sept. 11. President Bush personally announced the seizure of Holy Land's assets in December 2001, calling the action "another step in the war on terrorism."
...Lawyers for Holy Land said the Texas-based group was a legitimate charity that helped Muslim children and families left homeless or poor by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
A juror told The Associated Press that the panel found little evidence against three of the defendants and was evenly split on charges against Baker and former Holy Land chairman Ghassan Elashi, who were seen as the principal leaders of the charity.
"I thought they were not guilty across the board," said the juror, William Neal, a 33-year-old art director from Dallas. The case "was strung together with macaroni noodles. There was so little evidence."
...The Holy Land case followed terror-financing trials in Chicago and Florida that also ended without convictions on the major counts.
The government "failed in Chicago, it failed in Florida, it failed in Texas," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations -- one of those unindicted co-conspirators. "The reason it failed is the government does not have the facts; it has fear.""
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