After Josh Duggar was found guilty in his child pornography case last month, his legal team is making another effort to get a different outcome. As we previously reported, Josh’s defense requested an extension to file an appeal. Their motion was due on January 19 and has now come in. So, what is the legal team hoping to achieve, and what are they arguing happened with Josh’s trial?
In case you haven’t been keeping up with Josh Duggar’s case, you should know that the former TLC star was arrested in April 2021. Then, his trial began on November 30. At the end of the trial, the jury unanimously declared the Duggar son guilty. He’s facing decades behind bars, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
After the trial ended, Josh was booked into the Washington County Detention Center in Arkansas. He’s awaiting sentencing, which is expected to come in a couple of months and will then go to federal prison.
However, Josh Duggar’s legal team is attempting to fight this outcome. They’ve taken the next steps to attempt to change Josh’s fate.
Josh Duggar’s legal team wants an acquittal or a new trial.
Josh Duggar’s legal team filed their motion this week, requesting an acquittal or a new trial. The team hopes to get an acquittal on the following terms, which are included in the motion:
“If the jury has returned a guilty verdict, the court may set aside the verdict and enter an acquittal,’ where, as here, ‘the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the government, is such that a reasonably minded jury must have a reasonable doubt as to the existence of any of the essential elements of the crime charged,’ this ‘Court must grant a Rule 29 motion for judgment of acquittal.”
The motion continues, “The evidence elicited at trial does not support a conviction on either count — even in the light most favorable to the Government. The Government failed to adduce any evidence that Duggar ‘knew that the visual depictions were of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.’”
Also in the motion, Josh Duggar’s defense team states that “the jury had no evidence that Duggar personally viewed any specific portion of any of the files allegedly found on the computer.”
Josh’s team notes that the verdict may be overturned if a “miscarriage of justice may have occurred.”
The motion notes, “The Court’s broad discretion empowers it to grant relief based not only on the sufficiency of the evidence at trial but on any other circumstance that might render the trial ‘essentially unfair,’ including trial errors.”
Why does his team want a new trial?
If an acquittal isn’t an option, Josh Duggar’s team wants a new trial. The reasoning for that is failure “to timely disclose exculpatory evidence.”
In the motion, there are text messages and emails from Caleb Williams. He worked with Josh at the car lot. But the “evidence” in the motion was not available at the time of the trial. However, the motion notes that Caleb was at the car lot and had access to the computer “during certain relevant time periods.”
We will have to wait and see what happens as a result of this motion. It’s unclear what’s next for the eldest Duggar son, but we will hopefully have answers soon.
So, what do you think might happen next with Josh Duggar’s legal troubles? Do you think he will be able to get out of this one? Or do you think the guilty verdict and punishment will still stand? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. For the latest news on Josh Duggar and his legal situation, come back to TV Shows Ace.
