E-mail from jury forewoman in Burton murder trial
I got this e-mail Sunday from Barbara Rodenbaugh, the jury forewoman in the Michael Burton murder trial. A mistrial was declared in the case last week after the jury deadlocked.
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From: Barbara Rodenbaugh
Subject: Michael Burton Murder
Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:30:21 -0700
To: will.bigham@inlandnewspapers.com
After reading some of the information about this case after we reached our verdict, I feel the ruling was a complete miscarriage of our justice system. After talking with both the prosecution and defense attorneys, it was clear the VICTIM was afraid for her life. There was a date set for her to appear in court for a restraining order. She begged the courts to order Michael Burton out of the house and the courts denied her request. What did the defense attorney mean when he stated his client was one of the most strangest he has met?
If I had it to do over again, I would have stuck with my original verdict of FIRST DEGREE MURDER. I only hope the remaining jurors took the time to review past information and feel their verdict of voluntary manslaughter did not fit the circumstances provided to us. Every picture tells a story and the pictures I reviewed indicated the defendant attacked her when she walked through the door.
What was the defendant's attorney thinking when he instructed the defendant to move back into the residence? Or was she not thinking??
The children of Otilla are also victims. They have to live with this tragedy for the rest of their lives. If they were not able to tell the truth and brainwashed by the defendant's family, what kind of life will they live and what does still tell them about human life?
I think Ms. Rodenbaugh is confused about our justice system. As a juror, you don't consider things that weren't admitted as evidence during the trial in your decision. There was no mention of any restraining order during the trial, so it shouldn't have been used in deciding a verdict.
I absolutely understand that anything not admitted as evidence is not used for determining a verdict. My problem is the request the victim made to the courts to have Mr. Burton removed from the residence and that request was denied even though Mr. Burton called the victim's attorney and said to that office "if she goes through with the divorce, I will kill her". That information was given to us by both attorneys after our verdict. Meaning we did not have that information available to us until AFTER our verdicts.
I am clearly stating the justice system failed the victim by not ordering either party out of the residence.