Muscatine Jury Deadlocked

CORDER, MILLER, LAWSON, KIVI

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 5/8/2009 at 14:07:33

Maquoketa Sentinel-Press, December 19, 1987.

Jury deadlocked; new trial possible

By Jean Hindman

James Corder may be re-tried on murder and arson charges within 90 days if prosecutor James Kivi of the Iowa Attorney General’s Office decides to re-try the case.

Corder’s two week trail ended in a mistrial Thursday, December 17, when a Muscatine jury failed to reach a verdict on first-degree murder and second-degree arson charges.

Corder, 16, was charged in the March 25th stabbing death of his stepmother, Marsha Corder, and the subsequent fire at the Corder home in Maquoketa.

District Judge Jack Burns declared a mistrial at about 4 p.m., Thursday, December 17th, after the 12 jurors became “hopelessly deadlocked.” The jurors voted 8-4 for acquittal, a court administrator said. Burns sat in for District Judge David Sohr on Thursday.

Kivi said he was not surprised by the hung jury or the 8-4 vote for acquittal. “The possibility had entered my mind because of the complexity of the case, but I didn’t give it serious thought. It was a difficult case because of the number of witnesses and the details of the case,” Kivi explained.

Kivi said a pre-trial conference to determine whether or not Corder will be re-tried will be held in Jackson County. If the state decides to prosecute Corder for a second time, Kivi, Lawson and a judge will determine a date and location for a new trial. The prosecutor did not know when the conference would be scheduled or where the trial would be located. He said state law requires that the case be re-tried within 90 days of the mistrial.

“It will be out of this (seventh) judicial district, but I don’t know where. I don’t think they will need to go as far as Sioux City,” Kivi said.

Defense attorney Mark Lawson of Maquoketa was in court Friday and was not available for comment.

The trial consumed two days of jury selection, eight days of testimony and opening and closing arguments in addition to deliberations over two days.

If a new trial is scheduled Kivi said he would probably handle the case and said both he and Lawson would be able to add or delete witnesses for the second trial.

Jurors took six ballots during the nine hours of deliberations, with the vote changing only once, according to court spokeswoman. The six man, six woman jury received the case at 3:45 p.m. Monday after hearing final arguments and receiving instructions from Sohr. They deliberated until 6:30 p.m., then were sent home. Deliberations were cancelled because of the snow storm Tuesday and Wednesday, and the jurors resumed deliberating the case at 9 a.m. Thursday.

Options for the jury on the murder charge included first or second degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter or acquittal. Alternatives on the arson count were second degree arson or acquittal.

Kivi was assigned to prosecute the Corder case when former Jackson County Attorney Carl Miller resigned on September 25. Kivi said having only two months to prepare his case did not affect the outcome of the trial.

Corder is being held in the Scott County Juvenile Detention Center, Davenport, on $250,000 bond. He has been incarcerated since his arrest on April 13.

The trial was moved to Muscatine County District Court on a change of venue because of publicity in the case.