It’s Thursday morning, July 11. Over the next two days, both federal prosecutors and Mike Miske’s defense attorneys will have their opportunity to put the more than five months of testimony in context. Some of that testimony was riveting, while some was plainly boring. There were also hundreds of trial exhibits shown briefly to the jury, including varied photos, charts and graphs, and all will somehow have to be woven into a coherent story line aimed at convincing jurors of the defendant’s guilt or innocence.
The attorneys’ stories have to take into account and, more importantly, make sense of the stories told by hundreds of witnesses, some confident, some reluctant, some experts in their fields, others telling their stories after previously pleading guilty and now hoping to redeem themselves and potentially be rewarded with reductions in their own criminal sentences. Jurors have to decide just how much truth was told by each witness, and how much weight should be given to each.
During the months of testimony, jurors did not know the specific charges against Miske or what charges each bit of information was supposed to be relevant to. They got a detailed description of the charges for the first time when the jury instructions were read to them last week. There are 16 criminal charges remaining. Some are charges involving substantive crimes–murder, kidnapping, assault. Others allege Miske’s participated in conspiracies intended to carry out crimes. In the case of conspiracies, the crime is in the agreement to attempt the crime, and whether or not the planned crime actually took place isn’t relevant to the question of guilt or innocence. That’s got to be confusing for the jury.
And there’s an overarching racketeering conspiracy charge, Count #1 in the lengthy indictment. To prove this charge, prosecutors must prove that two or more persons “agreed to conduct or participate, directly or indirectly, in the affairs of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity,” that Miske joined that conspiracy, and that its activities would “effect” interstate or foreign commerce, which “includes the movement of goods, services, money, and individuals between states.”
The idea of an “enterprise” is kind of a nebulous concept. It can be a formal organization, like a company or corporation, or it can just be a more informal association of people.
The jury instructions describe it this way: “[T]he government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this was or would have been a group of people with (1) a common purpose, (2) relationships among those associated with the enterprise, and (3) longevity sufficient to permit these associates to pursue the enterprise’s purpose. The government need not prove that the enterprise had any particular organizational structure or that the enterprise existed.”
The complexity of the jury’s task is reflected in the length of the jury instructions (156 pages) and the 11-page verdict form that tallies the jury’s votes on each element of the charged offenses, where the jury” keeps score of its decisions, guilty or not guilty.
In this criminal trial, there is no finding of “innocent.”
In total, given all that has been presented, it’s safe to say that Mr. Miske is not innocent. However, whether he is guilty of each offense “beyond a reasonable doubt” in legal terms is a wholly different question, on in which members of the jury are the sole decision-makers.
Government prosecutors have presented numerous witnesses who described acts of extreme violence allegedly carried out at Miske’s direction, some that targeted competitors or their employees, some aimed at his own employees suspected of wrongdoing, others planned to eliminate individuals with potentially damaging information if provided to authorities trying to bring down his business and criminal empire.
Despite Miske’s reputation for violence, he appears to be unlike prominent Hawaii gangland leaders of the past, most of whom have been cold-blooded killers willing to do their own “dirty work.” Miske was not feared as a known triggerman, but for surrounding himself with paid thugs willing to commit vicious assaults on his command without knowing the reasons behind the requests.
Beyond the violence that was the backbone of Miske’s business empire, there was the routine and pervasive fraud, big and little. Fraud in obtaining licenses. Fraud in meeting routine requirements of regulated industries, whether as a liquor licensee or a company handling dangerous and highly restricted chemicals used in termite fumigation. Forgery routinely used in applying for building permits. Creation of false character reference letters submitted to court on his behalf.
But wrapping it all up within a persuasive narrative is the challenge of the next two days.
I’m sure the closing arguments will draw considerably more news media attention than the rest of this long trial, which will hopefully result in some good reporting.
The jury is expected to begin deliberating on Monday. With a case this complex, I doubt they’ll be able to get done any time soon, but I could certainly be wrong.
Screenshot
Screenshot
