The fate of Dennis Oland is now in the hands of 12 jurors.
The jury in his second-degree murder trial retiring to the jury room just after 3:30pm on day 50 of the trial, following Justice Jack Walsh’s final instructions to them which stretched over a span of two days. The jury deliberated until shortly before 9:00 last night and will resume this morning at 9:00.
During his final instructions to the jury Walsh reviewing the evidence in the trial, including evidence relating to Richard Oland’s missing iPhone, the brown sports jacket seized from Dennis Oland’s home on July 14, 2011 and blood evidence.
There are only two verdicts that the jury can bring back in this case: guilty of second-degree murder or not guilty of second-degree murder.
The verdict has to be unanimous with Justice Walsh telling the jurors that everyone should give impartial and equal consideration to all of the evidence. He says the goal should be to reach an agreement that matches the individual judgement of each juror, they must not agree just for the purpose of bringing back a unanimous verdict. He says that sometimes a jury is unable to reach a verdict, however he tells them they should make “every reasonable effort” to reach a verdict.
Before the jury retired to the jury room one of the 13 jurors had to be discharged and that was done by a random draw. Juror 12, a woman, was chosen. Before she was chosen, Justice Walsh saying to the jury that each of them whether they participating in the deliberations or discharged from doing so, has been an important and equal member of the jury.
The trial began on September 16. Dennis Oland is accused of killing his father, high-profile and wealthy businessman Richard Oland—whose bludgeoned body was discovered face down in a pool of blood in his investment firm office on July 7, 2011.
CHSJ News reporter Laura Lyall is covering the Dennis Oland trial and will be live-tweeting the delivery of the verdict. To follow along go to the CHSJ News Twitter page or the Wave News Twitter page.
