A former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida Thursday won an appeal of her 2017 conviction for corruption, according to several reports.
Former Democrat Rep. Corrine Brown, who represented Florida’s Fifth and Third Congressional Districts over a period of nearly 25 years, had her conviction overturned after the 11 Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the District Court wrongly dismissed a juror after learning that the “Holy Spirit” told him Brown was not guilty of the crimes.
The appellate court voted to overturn the conviction with a 7-4 vote.
She had been convicted of 18 felony counts related to using a phony charity as a personal slush fund.
Brown lost her bid for reelection in 2016 when her congressional district was redrawn after a years-long battle in the Sunshine State.
“Chief Judge William Pryor, writing for the majority, said the decision of a district judge to remove the juror after deliberations had already begun in the trial was wrong because there was no evidence that the juror had engaged in misconduct or would have ultimately held out against a conviction,” according to POLITICO.
Though Brown’s conviction was overturned on a technicality, the decision can be viewed as a protection of religious liberty.
“Corrine Brown was entitled to the unanimous verdict of a jury of ordinary citizens,” Pryor wrote for the majority. “The removal of Juror No. 13—a juror who listened for God’s guidance as he sat in judgment of Brown and deliberated over the evidence against her—deprived her of one.”
Judge Charles Wilson wrote for the dissenting minority. He claimed that the majority was wrong in its interpretation of religious expression.
“The majority casts the district court’s decision as misconstruing religious expression while failing to safeguard the right to a unanimous jury verdict. On this record, I cannot agree,” Wilson wrote. “The decision to remove Juror No. 13 was a tough call, and one the district court did not take lightly. But from the district court’s superior vantage point, it was necessary to ensure that a verdict was rendered based on the law and evidence—a principle that is foundational to our system of justice.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Florida Capital Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
