Trial of Former McKesson Executives Ends with Acquittal and Partial Mistrial

Professor J. Kelly Strader (Southwestern), guest blogging on the white collar crime prof blog, writes:

After a six week trial on seven counts of various accounting-fraud related charges, two former McKesson executives were acquitted on one count today (AP report) The court declared a mistrial on the remaining counts.  The report states that eleven of the twelve jurors were prepared to convict the defendants on three securities fraud counts, but were unable to persuade the holdout.  Four other executives had previously pleaded guilty in the case, which arose from yet-another scheme to inflate revenues by falsifying earning reports.                                                                                             

 

The trial result proves the old defense adage, “it just takes one.”  Assuming more reports from the deliberations are forthcoming, it will be interesting to see if the complex proof required in such cases led the jurors to throw up their hands and call it quits.

(jks)