

Kyle’s widow Taya Kyle was the first witness called to testify, and she gave an emotional description of her husband, their family and their life together. Moore went on to reveal that his odd behavior was even evident to Kyle and Littlefield, telling the jury that Kyle texted Littlefield while they were in the car with Routh, writing “This dude is straight up nuts.” Seven members of the 12-person jury spoke to ABC News today about how they came to the unanimous decision after two and a half hours Tuesday night.In the defense’s opening statements, Routh’s attorney Tim Moore called the shooting “a tragedy” but made it clear that he would be using an insanity defense, saying Routh thought “that he had to take their lives because, in his psychosis, he thought they were going to take his.”


Routh had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and his attorneys had argued the former Marine had mental disorders and was in the grips of psychosis when he fatally shot Kyle and Littlefield.īecause Routh's lawyers never disputed he killed the two men, the biggest question the jurors had to answer was whether they thought he was legally insane or whether he was faking his claims of insanity. "You get 10 strikes in a criminal case in the state of Texas and so there's a whole bunch of things that go into whether you want to exercise one of those precious few strikes that you have." "There wasn't very many jurors dismissed because of too much pretrial publicity because they've seen so much or read so much that they already had their mind made up," he added. "Most of the people that can do that job and can take an oath to not be leaning one way or the other, and wait until the evidence is finished to make up their mind and deliberate the case most of them that tell me that, they can set that aside."
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Just because someone has seen the movie doesn't automatically disqualify them," Isham said. "I've been picking juries here for 19 years and in a whole lot of other counties, too. ETĪttorney Shay Isham, who was part of the team that defended Routh, said in an interview with ABC News' "Nightline" that there were concerns about selecting jurors for the highly publicized case, but they didn't see the movie as a reason to dismiss them.
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Watch the full story on "Nightline" tonight at 12:35 a.m. After the verdict, it was revealed that several members of the jury saw the movie before being selected to serve on the trial, but they maintained it did not interfere with their ability to fairly judge Routh. military history.Ī Texas jury of 10 women and two men found Routh guilty Tuesday of killing Kyle and Kyle's friend Chad Littlefield during a trip to a gun range Feb. The movie "American Sniper," which was up for six Oscars this past weekend, including Best Picture, is based on the memoir of famed Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in U.S. A defense attorney for Eddie Ray Routh, who was convicted of capital murder in the " American Sniper" trial, said the fact that some jurors had seen the movie did not hurt their case.
