Man mistakenly freed by jury gets killed hours later

Jury accidentally sets man free due to confusion over the guilt

A man charged with burglary went free after a jury filled out a not-guilty form by mistake and then was murdered hours later. Jurors in Fresno, California ended up deadlocked in Bobby Lee Pearson's case. They were hung, with only eight jurors voting guilty. But the jurors handed Superior Court Judge W. Kent Hamlin a not-guilty form, which the judge put on record. The jurors claimed to have been confused by the verdict forms.

The Fresno Bee reported that jurors tried to correct the mistake as soon as they realized what happened, but the judge had already recorded it, so Pearson was set free.

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Police say he went to a home to pick up some clothes and other belongings where he got into an altercation with his sister's boyfriend, who allegedly stabbed Pearson to death.


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