Adam Shlahet, director of the Brendan Moore Trial Advocacy Center, is quoted in a USA Today article fact checking false claims that the jury in former President Trump’s hush money trial did not need a unanimous verdict to convict.
Adam Shlahet, director of the Brendan Moore Trial Advocacy Center at Fordham Law School, told USA TODAY there was nothing improper or unusual about the instructions not requiring unanimity on that component of the charges. The charges filed and the statute did not require prosecutors to prove which specific “unlawful means” were used, just that at least one was used for each charge.
“The jury can disagree about how the election was influenced unlawfully, and the prosecution gave them options,” he said.
Shlahet noted that New York state courts use model jury instructions that judges then customize to the specific details of each case. Merchan “would not reinvent the wheel here” and would have based his instructions on ones used in similar cases.
