Law professor Jonathan Turley came up with the term coup de grace instruction to describe what happened since it is apparently unprecedented in criminal justice.
"Merchan just delivered the coup de grace instruction," Turley tweeted on X.
"He said that there is no need to agree on what occurred. They can disagree on what the crime was among the three choices. Thus, this means that they could split 4-4-4 and he will still treat them as unanimous."
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey called what Judge Merchan did "absolute insanity," adding in his own tweet that the jury was not even given a copy of the instructions.
"I've tried many jury trials in my day," Bailey wrote. "You give jurors paper instructions every time."
"How are 12 jurors supposed to remember the elements necessary for each of the 34 felony counts? This is an illicit, witch-hunt prosecution."
(Related: Speaking of court rulings, did you hear that the Supreme Court is allowing Texas to arrest illegal aliens?)
Kangaroo court
The jury of seven men and five women were instructed to begin their deliberation just before 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 28. If they wanted to, the jurors could have asked Judge Merchan for notes or to rehear testimony or review evidence, otherwise they had to do everything from memory only.
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"It is not my responsibility to judge the evidence here," Judge Merchan said to the jury. "It is yours."
The charges all stem from "hush money" charges against Trump that started around 2016 when it became obvious that he was probably going to win the election.
"Your verdict on each count you consider, whether guilty or not, must be unanimous," Judge Merchan originally stated. "That is, each and every juror must agree to it."
What Judge Merchan did not clarify at the time was that the jury only needed to be unanimous in deciding to convict Trump – they did not need to unanimously agree about what he actually did to violate the law.
"You should discuss the evidence and consult with each other, listen to each other, give each other's views careful consideration," Judge Merchan added as part of his instructions to the jury.
"And when you deliberate, you should do so with a view to reaching agreement when that can be done without surrendering an individual juror."
Reports indicate that all of the evidence against Trump was loaded onto a laptop that was voluntarily operated by Juror 4 and Juror 6, a questionable arrangement in and of itself.
Judge Merchan said that he "always" watches jurors "to see who is paying attention and who is not."
"Each of you is very engaged in this case," he further stated. "But we're not going to excuse [alternates]."
Judge Merchan also criticized defense attorney Todd Blanche who informed the jury that the former president could end up going to prison if they convict him. Blanche added that their decision to convict would be based on the claims of Michael Cohen, whom Blanche described as a "liar" who "lied to" the jury about Trump.
"You cannot send somebody to prison, you cannot convict somebody based upon the words of Michael Cohen," Blanche said in the court room only to have prosecutors interrupt him to object.
Judge Merchan agreed to the objection by sustaining it.
"That was outrageous," Blanche commented about what happened. "Someone who's been a prosecutor as long as you have, someone who's been an attorney as long as you have, knows that it's highly inappropriate."
The latest news about the deep state's ongoing witch hunt against Trump can be found at Trump.news.
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