A third trial ?
The taxpayers will revolt!!!
jmo
I have some personal experience in this sort of context that might be relevant. About 15 years ago, there was a city in Texas (a bedroom suburb to Dallas, and about the same population as Canton), that tried to do some legal shenanigary to take some land we own using eminent domain and basically use it to help Walmart create a lucrative development. Their offer was a pittance. We trusted God, prayed a lot, hired attorneys we had to have but couldn't afford, fought the city-Walmart group in court, and the end result was that the court ruled the city could have the land but would have to pay about 20x (twenty!) what they had offered in the process.
They balked. They hadn't planned on paying that price (which actually still wasn't full value, maybe only about 1/3). They had hearings after the ruling on whether to take it to an appeal, but with no assurance it wouldn't get worse. (I think they would have had to pay double or triple the 20x amount if they took it further, because it was what the land was worth, and the law was very much on our side.) And they couldn't even afford to pay the amount as ruled. So they decided to walk away. They wanted it for almost nothing, of course, and thought their power would allow that to happen.
That wasn't quite the end of the story, however. When they walked, state law required them to (a) NEVER try again, and (b) reimburse us 100% for all our costs, attorney's fees, prep work, etc. They choked and spit and sputtered, but they wrote the check they really couldn't afford. Obviously they also paid for all of their attorneys, experts, etc too.
But it didn't end there. The citizens of the town had gone to the many hearings (before economic development boards, city council, mayor, etc) where we TRIED to work with them to get a fair resolution or to just drop it, and had seen the city's roughshod approach and unwillingness to be reasonable. Then they were outraged at the cost paid - and the city was already having difficulty paying its bills.
Where it did end - at the very next election, every member of the city council on the ballot, plus the mayor, was voted out of office. The city manager was fired, as well as the engineer who schemed up the deal. And the rest of the city council - those not up for re-election in that first election - were voted out on the next election. The citizens of the city saw what had happened and cleaned house.
The point is this - a town doesn't have endless resources, and when you waste a big chunk of money, it makes people mad. As a result, I'm not at all convinced that a hung jury for KR will lead to another trial. Then again, I'm hopeful it won't have to get that far. Perhaps the jury will see the obvious lack of BARD this time, as incredibly obvious as it has become, and end this farce once and for all with a NG, to put the town out of its misery.
