Lessons From The Deedy Trial

Christopher Deedy testifies in court AP photo/Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Dennis Oda, file

We certainly learned a lot about our judicial system over the past weeks, thanks to the Christopher Deedy trial that ended in a hung jury.

And it’s not over yet. From all indications, the City Prosecutor’s Office will retry Deedy until it gets some kind of verdict it can live with. The hung jury means the 12 men and women of the jury couldn’t agree on a verdict. The jury was split eight-four for acquittal. It appears the City Prosecutor’s Office will continue to retry Deedy until it gets a favorable verdict one way or another. The idea is to give closure to all involved. Judge Karen Ahn will retry the case, and the prosecutor will be Janice Futa, who will try to improve on her last performance.

How many times can you be tried for the same crime? Evidently, until they get a verdict they can live with.

One thing is for sure, when all is said and done, the Deedy trial will go down in Hawaii history as a very expensive one.

It’s interesting that U.S. State Department special agent Deedy was in Hawaii to provide security for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference and ended up partying at a fast-food restaurant in Waikiki and shooting an unarmed man, Kollin Elderts. It makes you wonder why he didn’t take the easy way out, call 911 and go back to the APEC conference and hang out with the crowd he was sent to protect.

This all happened in 2011 and will probably drag on until 2014 after more hung juries and a local news special of the civil trial. That will be interesting because it involves money from an insurance policy, which a lot of people in the law enforcement industry carry.

So, as we gear up for more “hung juries,” maybe we should have a local television station air 12 Angry Men, starring Henry Fonda, which seems like a ready-made script of the Deedy jury.

One thing is for sure, the Christopher Deedy trial is not the kind of publicity Hawaii needs.