11.   But in a setback for prosecutors, the jury acquitted the defendant, Corey Arthur, of first-degree murder, apparently unconvinced that Arthur fired the fatal shot.

12.   Chapman said judges often refuse to give the jury the option of acquitting a defendant on the basis of necessity.

13.   Either no charges were filed, the case was dismissed or the defendants were acquitted.

14.   Finally, in the third state trial, the two remaining defendants were acquitted of murder and attempted murder charges in October.

15.   In more recent history, it was used by all-white Southern juries to acquit white defendants accused of assaulting or killing blacks or civil rights advocates.

16.   In some instances, juries acquitted the defendants.

17.   It was also used by Southern juries to acquit white defendants charged with murdering black people, as in the death of Medgar Evers.

18.   Juries that knew of the accusations that DeVecchio had leaked information to Scarpa did acquit defendants in two later trials concerning the Colombo family warfare.

19.   Much less attention was paid when a local jury, largely working-class in makeup, acquitted both defendants six months later.

20.   One defendant was acquitted, and the case against another was dismissed before trial after the perjured testimony was exposed.