Psychic Juror Prompts Retrial

Source: Dateline Zero

A juror in a Brisbane, Australia arson case has caused a retrial after telling the judge that she was psychic and already knew what happened before evidence had been presented.

Arnesa Omid appealed his case after being convicted of setting fire to his own home at Archerfield in Brisbane’s south in 2009 in an attempt to defraud his insurer.

Omid appealed against his conviction and sentence because, among other reasons, the judge only discharged the allegedly psychic juror and not the entire jury.

A Court of Appeals upheld the appeal, and ordered Arnesa Omid’s conviction be set aside and a new trial be held later this year.

A transcript of court proceedings shows the juror approached the trial judge and told him she already knew what happened during the fire. Explaining her psychic abilities to the judge, the juror said: “Sometimes this can be a real big burden.”

Despite assurances that she would conduct herself as a “normal person” and not as a psychic, the trial judge ordered that she be discharged because she might hav been biased by her visions.

Full post at Dateline Zero