Jurors have spent six days deliberating whether to convict Nima Momeni for the murder of Bob Lee — so long that his out-of-state defense attorneys have jetted home for the holidays. But Krista Lee, ex-wife of the victim, projects confidence that Momeni will be convicted.
“The jury process does look at your educational background,” she said. “It’s not a bunch of high school dropouts figuring out this monster’s fate. These are intelligent people taking time with the evidence, and as a family, we do appreciate that.”
She estimates that the jury has deliberated for 24 to 30 hours. The jurors typically meet for six hours a day and had to carve out time to decide on a spokesperson and undertake other official processes.
Deliberation lengths are far from a definitive harbinger of the verdict to come. Experts warn that there is little research on the correlation between jury deliberation time and verdict; Hadar Aviram, a law professor at UC Law San Francisco, describes any hypotheses as “folk wisdom.”
According to one 2009 study that used data gathered from Oregon’s Multnomah County, guilty verdicts on average have shorter deliberation times than not-guilty ones.
“It’s safe to assume that with longer verdicts, the jury is working through stuff,” said Tom Brunell, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Dallas who co-authored the report. “One of the things they might be working through is that they’re having trouble coming to a unanimous decision.”
But Dennis Devine, a jury consultant with expertise in psychology and legal decision-making, said the research he’s aware of suggests the opposite: Shorter deliberations have a tendency to be not-guilty verdicts.
“This probably reflects where the prosecution had a weak case, and it allowed the jury to work through the verdict form quickly,” he said. But Devine warned against taking this as an absolute. “It’s just a modest trend.”
Momeni has been charged with murdering Cash App founder Lee in what prosecutors call a vengeful, premeditated act of violence. Lee’s body was found by police near the Bay Bridge the morning of April 4, 2023, with three stab wounds, one to the hip and two to the chest.
The defense claims Momeni stabbed Lee in self-defense. They say Lee was primed to snap after days of taking drugs and getting little sleep and attacked Momeni with a knife in response to offensive comments Momeni made about Lee’s relationship with his family.
The jurors were shown a great deal of evidence — DNA tests, video surveillance, toxicology reports, text messages — throughout the six-week trial and must wade through that as they consider whether to charge Momeni with first-degree murder. Among the evidence was a last-minute potential game-changer: video footage of Lee holding what the defense claims is the paring knife he later used to attack Momeni.
Length of trial and clarity of case are two of the most relevant factors to consider when assessing jury deliberation time, according to Valerie Hans, a law professor at Cornell. A longer trial means more evidence to sift through; an unclear case with conflicting evidence means more debate.
The bottom line? It would be unwise to make assumptions about the Momeni verdict as deliberations continue.
The longest jury deliberation ever in a U.S. criminal trial was 55 days, for a 2003 trial in Oakland. The police officers on trial, accused of assaulting and falsely arresting city residents, were ultimately acquitted.
The Momeni jurors have a laborious task. “I am so glad I’m not on that jury,” Aviram said.
Thursday was the last day of the jurors’ “hardship” period, during which they are expected by the judge to continue participation. The jurors are now essentially free to leave, but there’s no indication that any intend to do so.
Day seven of deliberations will resume Monday at 1:30 p.m.