On Friday, a six-person jury at a New York court declared human rights activist Kerry Kennedy not guilty of drugged driving charges filed against her, according to a report by The Associated Press published on Boston.com. Kennedy's case was high-profile as her identity as the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, niece of President John F. Kennedy and ex-wife of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had been brought up and used by her lawyers in her trial.
AP said it only took the jury less than an hour to deliberate Kennedy's innocence when she swerved into a tractor-trailer in 2012 on an interstate highway in her Lexus. In her testimony, Kennedy claimed she mistakenly took a sleeping pill instead of her usual daily thyroid medication prior to the accident.
Telling the jury that she has no recollection about the accident, Kennedy said, ‘If I realized I was impaired, I would have pulled over.''
The news wire agency said that if the jury had found Kennedy guilty, she could have been served a one-year sentence, which was deemed harsh for a first-time offender.
In a dramatic show of support, AP said the public saw the famous political family's solidarity during the trial. Kennedy's mother, 85-year-old Ethel Kennedy, was present at her daughter's trial every day. Around a dozen of the Kennedys were also present at the trial, including the defendant's three daughters.
Political media consultant and professor of advertising Tobe Berkovitz at Boston University noted this and told AP, ‘The Kennedys saw this as a DA overreaching, making a big case out of a silly mistake. So they absolutely played every Camelot trump card they had in the deck. They had the family. They had questions about her losing her father as a young girl. ‘When the legacy is being challenged, they all step up and fight.''
