Noor trial: Closing arguments, deliberation and a possible verdict loom large in week 5
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - With everybody recharged for closing arguments Monday morning, the Mohamed Noor case is expected to head to deliberation by noon.
Already, however, attorneys say everyone is tired and they want a verdict sooner rather than later after four long weeks in the courthouse.
“What she did is what all of us would’ve done,” said Todd Schuman, a Justice for Justine organizer about Justine Rusczyk Damond’s actions that fateful night. “Is to try and help out a fellow citizen.”
21 months after Damond was killed in the alley behind her home, a memorial at 51st and Washburn in Minneapolis is impeccably maintained in her honor.
“That’s what we would want,” Schuman added. “We would want us to look out for each other, and to be betrayed by the system like that is just terrible.”
Schuman, Justine’s neighbor, has kept a close eye on the trial against Mohamed Noor. As the trial heads into week five, defense attorney Marsh Halberg says the jury could be ready to deliberate as early as Monday.
“What the defense is going to try to pound home is that it’s an apparent danger that he’s responding to, not an actual danger,” Halberg said of what to expect from closing arguments.
Noor faces three felonies in the case: Second and third-degree murder and third-degree manslaughter.
“I could see them at least convicting on the manslaughter charge,” he added. “That’s just negligence that he shot someone without a gun. That seems tough for the defense to beat, but the murder two case I think is beatable.”
Halberg expects that, when it comes to the verdict, jurors will want to be fair.
“You’ve got 12 jurors. Only one has to say, you know what, I’m not going to convict this guy,” Halberg said.
The jury will be sequestered, which means no going home until they reach a verdict. So, they’ll deliberate during the day and then stay in the same hotel until unanimous verdicts are reached on all three counts.
Meanwhile, a Justice for Justine rally will be held at the Government Center the day a verdict is announced at 5 p.m.