One day after a hung jury was declared in the Megan Martzen trial, talk of retrying the case is now gaining both support and criticism.
Should the Megan Martzen murder case go before another jury, or should it be dismissed? Martzen's defense attorney Jeff Hammerschmidt says the answer is simple.
"There's been a lot of comments about it and I think they're pretty much universal that the case should not be retried because of how strong the vote was in Megan's favor."
The heavy lean toward not guilty on both charges wasn't enough for the prosecution to throw in the towel just yet. Jeff Dupras suggested Thursday he might continue fighting for a conviction. Some say the jury has spoken and the fight needs to end now.
Josie Moreno says,"We waste money on trying and retrying and if the prosecution doesn't have enough evidence to claim somebody guilty of wrongdoing, then that's it. Why should they continue what isn't there?"
Others point to something much bigger than tax payer dollars.
Alma Wells says, "I don't think it's justice for the child and it's not justice for the parents. It's the death of a child and we don't want to leave it up to any question. We need to definitely decide which way, one or the other."
"I agree that we need to retry the case because people need to have some closure and at this point the family doesn't have closure. And taxpayers money, that's why we pay our taxes, to do something right," says Mary Ballesteros.
Hammerschimdt says people can't ignore the facts. Eight of twelve jurors believed Martzen did not hurt or kill Ella Van Leeuwen. Ten of them agreed on something else.
"That there was no chance that another jury would be able to reach a unanimous decision to find her guilty," says Jeff Hammerschmidt.
We did reach out the Fresno County District Attorney's office for comment. Our calls were not returned.
TXT 24
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