Video: Edwards case: the last of its kind?

>> joining me here in the studio is nbc's chief legal krount, savannah guthrie . before i get to the question whether the federal prosecutors will go forward with this, this afternoon, the jurors went to the judge and said we have reached a unanimous decision on one of the counts, count three. we haven't on the others. she sent them back to work and then a short time later, declared a mistrial. why not keep them working?

>> because you really only get one bite at the apple. when the jury comes back and tells the judge we're dead deadlocked, there's well established presidents to give them an allen charge . but when they come back that second time and say, we still can't agree, the defendant is entitled to that deadlocked jury.

>> and because this was such a complicated and controversial case, so much disagreement over whether it should have been brought in the first place, what is your take on what federal prosecutors might do next.

>> they certainly have the right to retry john edwards on infliev counts. the question is, will they. nearly every legal ruling in this case went for the prosecutors. i think the prosecutors will want to know from the jury if they can find out what the breakdown was in the jury rheoom. if it was 11 to 1 for conviction, it was one hold out, that might change the calculus.

>> a big riv if they decide to go forward.

>> yeah, and they are to look at the interest of justice. is there a federal interest that needs to be brought here.

>> that brings the question, how will this case impact future cases involving laws like that?

>> you wonder if a case like this will ever be brought again. it already was a case of first impression . no one had ever tried to bring a criminal charge lice this under the campaign finance law, and now because of the supreme court decision in 2010 , the landscape has changed entirely, and you wonder under these same facts, could there have been a super pac and john edwards could have raised money that way and it would have been legal.

>> thank you very much.

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