Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Retrying a Hung Jury Case

Aside from your loyalty to your husband, I don't see why you call it a "ridiculous case". Presumably your husband's lawyers asked the court to dismiss the case (this is a standard part of most criminal cases) and the court refused because it believed there was enough evidence to support the charges. The fact that six jurors voted to convict says that they were persuaded by the evidence of your husband's guilt. The other six did not necessarily believe your husband is innocent; they may simply have had reasonable doubts.

It is natural that you don't want the case to be retried, but the D.A. has the right to proceed. Given that the current charge is a felony (whether is *should* be a felony is another question), there is nothing ridiculous about the D.A. deciding to go to trial again.

I don't mean to sound disrespectful, but your complaint here isn't that the D.A. is acting illegally. Instead, you just want him to change his mind. The wishes of a defendant's spouse play essentially no part in a prosecutor's decision, and rightfully so. After all, how many people *do* want to see their spouse prosecuted?

Likewise, your belief that re-trying the case is a waste of resources is not relevant. The D.A.'s office decides how to use its resources, and it has decided to use some to retry your husband. Whether others -- especially your husband or you -- disagree with this decision doesn't matter at all.

There is nothing legally improper about the type of letter-writing campaign you have in mind. It is unlikely to hurt your husband's chances unless the judge is unreasonably sensitive to criticism. But your letters are also unlikely to help. The D.A. won't care at all about your request to drop the prosecution of a man he believes is guilty of a felony. The judge will not even read your letter -- or any other letter about the case regardless of who it is from or what it says. Your congressman probably won't care much about the situation either unless you can convince him that your husband is actually innocent, which I doubt you can do. Besides, elected officials who want to be re-elected like to appear hard on crime; intervening on behalf of a defendant without a *very* good reason to do so will make him appear soft on crime instead.

Your plan for a "massive letter-writing campaign" seems unrealistic. People get involved in such campaigns when they are convinced that the defendant is innocent or is being unjustly targeted, not because his wife just wants the case dropped. Geronimo Pratt had a massive letter-writing campaign behind him, but he was actually innocent and his D.A. had prosecuted the case in an illegal manner -- and even then it took many years before the campaign had any effect. You are kidding yourself if you think you can muster much support or that it will prevent a retrial.

Sorry I can't be more encouraging. Sometimes a hard dose of reality is the best help I can offer.