A Plain Dealer analysis of court records from the past 10 years revealed that in the 6,891 trials between 2000 and 2009, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judges acquitted 364 defendants in midtrial, [b]usually without waiting for the defense to present its case.

That means one out of every 19 people who went to trial on felony charges walked away free because prosecutors didn’t present the most basic evidence.

Ohio judges have the power to dismiss charges in criminal cases if they determine insufficient evidence was presented at trial to support a conviction. The authority comes from Rule 29 of the Ohio Rules of Criminal Procedure. Judges must view the evidence in the light most favorable to prosecutors when considering whether to grant a Rule 29 acquittal. The ruling cannot be appealed.

Judges relied on Rule 29 of the Ohio Rules of Criminal Procedure to throw out the cases. The provision allows judges to acquit if they believe the evidence, even when viewed in a light most favorable to prosecutors, is insufficient to convict.

Jurors are so convinced that a Cleveland teen should not have been charged with assaulting another teen that they've gone beyond acquitting him. A few are writing angry letters to police and intend to donate their jury pay to him. At least three jurors plan to give the $100 they received to sit on the jury to defendant Demrick McCloud, 19, if McCloud earns a high school equivalency degree. They took only 30 minutes to find him not guilty in their deliberations Friday.

Most of the jury could not be reached for comment, but three members complained of a "sheer lack of evidence."

They said the prosecution's case hinged on the victim identifying McCloud as an attacker. But the victim also had told police he was certain another boy -- later found to be in school at the time -- was one of the assailants.

As they were leaving the courthouse, jurors Ana de Freitas Boe, an English professor at Baldwin-Wallace College; Jeanne Knotek, an obstetrician and gynecologist; and alternate juror Richard Nagin discussed ways to help McCloud.

The three have committed to donating their jury stipend to a fund for McCloud. Boe said the amount is too small to compensate McCloud for his jail time, but the jurors intend it as a "show of support."

"He seemed like a decent kid who was falsely accused," Nagin said.