Delia D'Ambra

John Ward testified, and so did the original witnesses from Sand River Camp.

One big difference, though, was that the judge overseeing the trial had everyone involved travel out to the reserve to tour the important locations of the crime.

That experience was incredibly emotional for Jan Ward, Julie's mother, who traveled from England to attend the trial.

She and John were allowed to grieve in private after the tour ended for the day and the defendants were escorted out of the area.

Not long after that, the murder trial abruptly paused so that another case could go before the court.

It was scheduled to resume at a later date, and I guess this is just something that happens within the Kenya court system.

I'm not familiar with a situation like this happening, but regardless, John Ward was once again unhappy with the way Kenya's court system chose to operate.

He told The Guardian, quote, "'It is really quite disgraceful.

This trial has assumed second league importance.'"

It's really quite pathetic.

They've adjourned it for every reason under the sun, end quote.

I have no idea what the other court case was that caused the trial to be delayed, but once things resumed a few weeks later, the verdict came in.

And it was not what the wards expected.

Sam Kiley reported for the Times that the assessors of the trial determined that both park rangers were not guilty of killing Julie.

A few days later, the judge presiding over the proceedings agreed.

Now, you might be asking, what is an assessor?

Because I had the same question.

And the best I could tell from reading the source material is they're kind of like jurors, but they don't have the same power that a jury here in the U.S.

has.

Basically, in Kenya, assessors in a murder case determined guilt or innocence and made their recommendation to the judge.