Ohio man Gary Lamb, a juror in the high-profile murder trial of Brooke Skylar Richardson, said he was “stressed out” after sitting in the jury box for more than a week.
Lamb said that after listening to the facts in the case, he felt the prosecution “severely overcharged” Richardson.
Richardson, a former cheerleader, was acquitted last week of aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, and child endangerment charges. However, she was found guilty of abuse of a corpse.
Her attorneys admitted that she buried the child but insisted that the girl was stillborn. Prosecutors said that Richardson gave birth to a live infant and killed the child.
Lamb said that he agreed with the defense attorneys.
“You can’t prosecute someone on your own opinion,” Lamb said. “You have to have the facts. It would have been different if [prosecutors presented] better evidence.”
“There was no proof at all, and the prosecutors did not prove their case. I had a difficult time as the prosecutors insisted on the (baby) burning theory. They had no proof. It was based on a false premise, and they knew it,” she told the Journal-News. She referred to an allegation by prosecutors that Richardson attempted to burn the child, which was a theory posited by a forensic expert who later recanted.
“I think that really hurt the prosecution, in my opinion,” she said.
“We did not feel the prosecution proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Grawe said. “We were all in agreement about that.”
Sentenced
Richardson, for the corpse abuse charge, will receive no jail time. For that, according to People, she received three years of probation, or community control, and went home last week.She was sentenced to seven days in a county jail. However, she was credited for time served.
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