Totally not suspicious at all.
These days, if a defendant wants to illegally sway a jury, the easiest way is to just leverage millions of followers on Truth Social. But many criminal defendants don’t have access to social media followers literally willing to storm into the Capitol. What are those folks supposed to do?
According to a juror recently dismissed from a high-profile criminal case in Minnesota, the answer is drive a giant bag full of money up to the house, which is how you’d describe jury tampering in a children’s cartoon more than real life.
Humans in the Loop: The People Powering Trusted Legal AI
As the use of artificial intelligence permeates legal practice, a critical question confronts every legal professional who uses these tools: Can I trust this?
The Feeding Our Future case alleged a massive, $250 million fraud involving federal, pandemic-related child nutrition funds. According to the DOJ, the organization’s name worked a little fast and loose with its name, telling the world the relevant “our future” meant “hungry children” when it mostly meant “the staff’s luxury cars.” The first trial dealing with the scheme convicted 5 of the 7 defendants.
But not before some drama, per the Minnesota Reformer:
With the jury out of the courtroom, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said in open court that a woman in a Mazda drove to the juror’s home in Spring Lake Park, left a bag of cash with her father-in-law and said “there’ll be another bag tomorrow” if she voted to acquit the seven defendants.
A Mazda? Maybe all those purloined funds could’ve been used on nicer cars. Anyway, the juror told the FBI once she got home.
Context Windows In Legal AI And Why Content Still Determines Quality
Legal teams ask a practical question. If large language models are so capable, why does legal AI still depend on curated content, and why does surfacing that content matter so much?
Handing out big bags of cash is bad. But, on the other hand, the folks behind the alleged bribe didn’t try to record it as a legal expense.
So there’s that!
Juror in Feeding Our Future case excused after being offered bags of cash to acquit [Minnesota Reformer]
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.