Diddy jury deadlocked after rapper's defense played 'high stakes poker': legal expert

Sean Diddy Combs' federal trial jurors were deadlocked Tuesday after reaching a verdict on four of the five counts against the rapper Two months after the trial kicked off and nearly hours into deliberations jurors described Judge Arun Subramanian that they were unable to reach a unanimous decision on a racketeering charge The prosecution called more than observers to the stand throughout seven weeks of testimony while Diddy's defense band rested without calling any bystanders on their behalf a move considered high stakes poker by former federal prosecutor and Fox News contributor Trey Gowdy DIDDY JURY REACHES PARTIAL VERDICT IN SEX TRAFFICKING RACKETEERING TRIAL Usually when defense does not call observers that defendant is called an inmate Gowdy explained I've explained that my entire career That's a fancy way of calling someone an inmate You gotta give the jury a reason for reasonable doubt and to entirely say the prosecution hasn t met its burden preponderance jurors don t really understand what that burden is He added Gotta give the jury a reason for doubt and if you don't put up a very major defense all you do is cross-examine executive eyewitnesses then you're going to be an inmate DIDDY DEFENSE INSISTS HE WAS UNFAIRLY TARGETED WHILE PROSECUTION SAYS RAPPER THOUGHT HE WAS 'UNTOUCHABLE'Diddy advised the court last week that it was his decision not to testify in his sex crimes situation The judge inquired if Diddy understood he had the right to testify or not testify and if he had discussed his rights with his attorney Diddy responded Yes thoroughly before admitting it was solely my decision to not testify in his sex crimes trial Jurors began deliberating on Monday June and of the five counts could not agree on a verdict for the racketeering charge one of the majority serious counts against the disgraced music mogul A federal RICO violation can aftermath in a -year sentence The transportation to engage in prostitution charge could carry a sentence of up to years while sex trafficking by force fraud or coercion may carry a -year sentence It s very complicated majority of lawyers cannot explain RICO so to expect people average citizen jurors to understand a criminal enterprise predicate acts it s just a lot to ask Gowdy stated There s a reason to charge it even if you don t win It opens evidentiary doors that might be closed so lots of times prosecutors will charge something because it enables you to get extra evidence before a jury even though you don't really expect to get a guilty verdict on that count LIKE WHAT YOU RE READING CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSCriminal defense attorney John W Day owner of the Santa Fe New Mexico-based law practice John Day Law narrated Fox News Digital that jurors may have had a formidable time comprehending the RICO charge Was Diddy's high-flying and maybe disturbing lifestyle just that or can you really pick out a criminal enterprise that is the equivalent of an organized crime family Day stated But the day after morning the judge will be hoping that after a night of thinking about it the jurors will have second thoughts about a split verdict on RICO one way or the other and come back with a unanimous verdict on that the bulk serious charge Criminal defense attorney Nicole Blank Becker who represented R Kelly explained that the predicate acts against Diddy were the building blocks to establish a RICO charge Whether a jury can agree on a verdict or not remains to be seen So what happens is now they're forced to go back in there and there's ostensibly going to be a lot of frustration back there more fighting back and forth Becker mentioned My understanding is that the jurors' verbiage was something to the effect of that they're at a point where there's unpersuadable opinions on both sides So clearly specific of the jurors thinking 'Well obviously he's guilty ' The judge instructed the jury to continue deliberating for now A second option would be to give supplemental jury instructions Lastly the jury could return a partial verdict However Judge Subramanian stated he is not considering the third option at this point and chose to have a portion of the jury charge re-read Criminal defense attorney Eric Faddis founding partner of Colorado-based Varner Faddis agreed that the RICO charge was the bulk complicated of all the charges CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER The jury could be hung up on the different requirements of the charge including the criminal enterprise element Faddis declared I suspect that may be a sticking point because the executive didn t charge any co-conspirators and never called any other alleged members of this criminal enterprise WATCH PROSECUTORS ACCUSED DIDDY OF RUNNING A CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE He added At this point it s unclear whether the partial verdict could give rise to any grounds for appeal The cabinet emphasized in their argument that Diddy ran an alleged criminal enterprise with full control The prosecution pointed out that the jury heard testimony saw texts viewed bank records and heard audio allegedly showing the Last Night rapper committing crime after crime for decades According to the prosecution the regime manifested Diddy didn t take no for an answer Up until this day Diddy was able to get away with crime because of money and power Assistant U S Attorney Christine Slavik disclosed That stops now The verdict for the four counts reached came fairly rapidly according to Austin-based criminal defense attorney Sam Bassett It seems the jury has struggled and spent the majority of their time debating the more serious and complex racketeering count Bassett noted If I was the defense I d be concerned but you never know what a jury will do For this lengthy of a trial a -hour deliberation is on the short side of expectations When the jury was brought back into the courtroom the judge requested them to keep deliberating saying it is their duty to discuss among themselves and form opinions Judge Subramanian revealed the jurors must reach a unanimous verdict but must not give up their convictions merely to return a verdict or satisfy the rest of the jurors The jury was then dismissed back to the jury room Court concluded after p m and the jury was urged to return on Wednesday before a m Both sides stated that they do not want to accept a partial verdict attorney David S Seltzer stated Fox News Digital This forces the jury to render a complete verdict which ultimately could lead to a hung jury on the count at issue if they cannot render a verdict on all counts and thus lead to a practicable retrial on the hung count As for appellate issues there will be plenty of and depending on how the incident resolves this may be another issue for appeal