During the two-week trial, the prosecution has shown videotapes of Rex Allan Krebs confession and of his leading law enforcement to the buried bodies of Aundria Crawford and Rachel Newhouse. At issue for the jury, however, may not be whether he did it, but what is the correct legal definition of the crime. The definitions are about as confusing as they have ever been for lay people, Stein said. The differentiation between manslaughter and murder is malice aforethought. That s a very elusive kind of instruction.
People have trouble trying to figure out the difference between expressed malice and implied malice.
The definitions may be a concern for the Krebs jury. On Friday, they passed a note to the judge asking if they can vote for felony murder even if the murder did not happen simultaneously with the rape. Judge Barry LaBarbera told the jury that they had read the law and that he could not interpret it for them. Another factor that could be at play in the jury room is the specter of the death penalty, It isn t supposed to be a factor in deciding guilt, but that doesn t stop jurors from thinking about it, Stein said. Their vision may be over the horizon to the death penalty phase.