Hey, what does anyone do when they can’t decide? Flip a coin, of course:

LOUISVILLE — Jurors who couldn’t decide whether to convict a man of murder or manslaughter in the shooting of his girlfriend flipped a coin and found him guilty of murder, subjecting him to a possible life sentence before a judge declared a mistrial.

…Brian Butler, one of the prosecutors in the case, said one of the jurors apparently told someone about the coin toss, and that person told someone who works in the Jefferson County court system. The court employee told a judge, who brought it to Judge Conliffe’s attention, Mr. Butler said.

…“I don’t think it’s widespread,” said Cedric Powell, an assistant law professor at the University of Louisville. “But I think the system breaks down sometimes. There are imperfections in the system. There are problems with the system. But it doesn’t shake my faith in it.”

Sure shakes my faith in the system – what would have happened if none of the jurors told, or if the juror hadn’t been two steps removed from someone who worked in the court system? We would have never known, and the verdict this remarkably irresponsible jury reached would have retained the same prima facie reliability as any other.

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