Does that mean she could potentially walk?
Appellate courts rarely, if ever make a determination of guilt on a case. Rather, a
successful appeal only means that the case is remanded for a new trial. Though it is possible to be released pending the new trial (innocent until proven guilty- again), I imagine that the bail would be set very high.
Likewise, the appeal needs to be successful. My state's standard for an appeal is that cited errors must be "
egregious" or "
shocking to the conscious". Not receiving the optimal jury from the defense point of view does not meet this standard.
Then factor in the concept that a defendant is not protected from his / her own notoriety in the sense that there will be a certain amount of inavoidable social hostility to defendants accused of certain crimes. Jurors need only to be objective, not computers.
In short, I have a feeling that Keepers will need to show
blatant pre conceived bias regarding the two jurors. That is a steep mountain, but it can be climbed.
An example of a defendant making the climb is that of Mark Temple a quarterback convicted of murdering his wife. His defense proved that the prosecutors did not disclose a comprehensive investigation into an alternative suspect.
The alternative suspect was a troubled teenager who lived nearby and had a relatively mild confrontation with the victim. He then lied to police about being in school that day when he was in fact at home smoking pot- then left to "cruise around". He also failed portions of a lie detector test.
If Virginia has the same standard, the defense needs to come up with something equally compelling regarding the jurors.
