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Stressed Out Stevens' Jury Heads Home Early
The jurors in the trial of Sen. Ted Stevens have just sent a note to the judge asking to go home early, after just four hours of deliberations.
"It's kind of stressful right now, can we leave a little early? We need a moment of clarity," the juror's note read according to MSNBC.
As we reported earlier, today is the first day of deliberations in the historic trial of Stevens, who is the first sitting senator to ever be indicted.
Judge Emmet Sullivan acquiesced, letting the jurors leave early, the AP reports.
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Josh
Zachary
Freedom is on the march for Teddy Bear's picnic.
October 22, 2008 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
That can't be good for the prosecution. I figured they'd done before lunch. It's amazing how much decades of pork can affect a juror's sensibilities.
October 22, 2008 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Judge Emmet SULLIVAN, perhaps? Or is this in front of a celebrity judge with a notable NFL career?
October 22, 2008 6:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh man, you caught me. I've been making that mistake since the trial started . . . Emmitt Smith was a household name growing up.
October 22, 2008 6:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, do you know you have an ad that plays automatically on the TPM main site?
October 22, 2008 6:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe Uncle Ted can throw them a barbecue with his snazzy stainless steel grill, and they can take turns sitting in his Sharper Image massage chair...
Oops, when I said 'his' I meant 'the cabin's.'
October 22, 2008 6:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
So the jury foreman says there is "stress".
Stress means disagreement.
While I don't have any personal jury experience, from what I've seen and read, stressful disagreement in a jury room doesn't typically come from simple discussions of the evidence, it's usually related to non-unanimous votes to convict or acquit.
My guess is that they've taken a vote on at least some, perhaps all of the counts, and are currently deadlocked.
Does this suggest a mostly even split or has a single juror gone against the majority and firmly decided to convict or acquit?
Based on the very strong evidence against Stevens, my complete and total guess would be that the majority wants to convict on most counts, but a single juror wants to acquit because of the prosecutor's screw ups. I could be totally wrong, but that would be my guess.
Then again, maybe they all just wanted the afternoon off.
October 22, 2008 7:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I like the judge`s name.If there is a conviction.I`ll be satisfied.
October 22, 2008 8:21 PM | Reply | Permalink