I don’t get it, they were acquitted, but the jury found they had planned to kidnap hey and blow up a bridge?
I’m not able to read the article but one of a few things could be happening here.
One, the jury may have found that even though they made the plans the state couldn’t prove they ever actually tried to carry them out. A conspiracy is just talk until someone does something that can be directly tied to it. For instance, you and a group of friends make dark jokes about building guillotines and turning them on your entire government. Just jokes, until big Tim shows up one day with a bunch of lumber and y’all start talking about how to actually build one. Now you’re commiting seditious conspiracy.
If the prosecution proved they made plans, but failed to prove they did anything to carry them out, they could be rightfully acquitted.
Another possibility, one I think is much less likely, and this is important reading further may bar you from ever serving on a jury. Just FYI.
The concept of nullification, the jury finds a law has been broken, but decides that this person shouldn’t be punished, so returns a not guilty verdict. This can happen for a variety of reasons and was common in the South during Jim Crow. Because the jury can’t really be wrong, legally speaking, and you can’t be tried twice for the same crime, under normal circumstances, the crime would go unpunished.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Jurors in northern Michigan acquitted three men on Friday who were accused of providing support to a plot to kidnap the state’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer.
Against that backdrop, state prosecutors said, a group of men with antigovernment beliefs, militia ties and anger over pandemic lockdowns came together and began concocting a plan to abduct and possibly kill Ms. Whitmer at her rural vacation home, and perhaps incite a civil war in the process.
Some of the men discussed attacking the governor’s security detail and blowing up a bridge to hinder the police response to the kidnapping.
During the trial, William Barnett, a lawyer for Mr. Molitor, noted for the jury that Ms. Whitmer had blamed Mr. Trump’s rhetoric for the plot.
Federal jurors found that Mr. Croft and Mr. Fox had planned to kidnap Ms. Whitmer and destroy a bridge leading to her home.
Antrim County is politically conservative, and Donald J. Trump received more than 60 percent of the vote there in 2020, even as Joseph R. Biden Jr. won the race statewide.
The original article contains 596 words, the summary contains 175 words. Saved 71%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!