If the Libby Jurors Don't Reach a Verdict Today, They Are Probably Split

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

If the Jurors don't reach a verdict today, then I think it's fair to say that they are having tough time time coming to an agreement. My experience with juries is that if they can finish on a Friday, they will, so they can have a weekend before going back to work. I'm sure they would like to finish today. But if they don't that probably means that they are currently split and are fighting to reach unanimity. It raises the likelihood of a hung jury, although good juries can achieve unaninimity even after initial splits of opinion.

I think the jurors break at 5:00pm (40 minutes from now). We'll see if they announce then. If not, we may be waiting awhile.

[AngryAmish]

1. ya think?

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

2. That's my opinion

based on my experience with juries. When it comes right down to it, they don't like to finish a long jury service and then go right back to work the next day. If they can finish on a Friday, giving themselves a weekend before going back to work, they will.

[Ian David]

3. The problem is most likely Juror No. 0677

Scooter Libby Trial - Watch Out For Juror No. 0677

And then there's Juror No. 0677. She is a television producer. She claimed she had paid attention to the case in a "circumfery" manner, and she has booked some of the journalists involved in the case. She was questioned about her ties to these reporters and whether she could evaluate their testimony without favor. She said yes. As for Cheney, she said, "I don't have any objective feelings about whether he would be more or less credible in this case."

She also mentioned that she was once an intern at the National Journalism Center and then an intern at The Washington Times, the conservative newspaper owned by Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. There were no queries from the judge and lawyers about these connections. Yet might she be a conservative harboring pro-administration inclinations? Though the National Journalism Center has a bland name, it is a rightwing outfit that trains young conservative journalists and finds them jobs. Not all of its graduates are ideologically minded. But the group was launched in part by the American Conservative Union. It has received funding from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and the John M. Olin Foundation, leading conservative foundations. (The John M. Olin Foundation funded itself out of business in 2005.) Several years ago, the National Journalism Center was taken over by another conservative group, the Young Americas Foundation.

Jurors ought not be blackballed for their political views. But if a National Journalism Center graduate makes it on to the jury, the Libby legal team would have reason to be pleased. Fitzgerald might want to ask her a few more questions.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=158370


More:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3146507

[Jacobin]

5. Holy crap. A Moonie?

I wish Fitz had exercised a peremptory challenge on that one.

[PhilipShore]

8. My guess is Fitz, and the lawyer for Libby were thrilled when she got on...

the jury: they knew as a TV producer - more then likely she has a CIA/Repuke connection - and would never convict regardless of the facts or law, and that it would be a hung jury.

I am not a lawyer -- but when Libby's lawyer was crying: they were either fake tears and/or tears of joy - because it was a show trial from day one. The tears of joy were all because of the - mega multi-millions of $$$ - he would now make - from all the "new clients" he would get with everyone thinking he is the next Perry Mason.

The government never had any intention - of ever convicting Libby for anything, the government went thru the motions of appearing to investigate corruption, so that when Jeb Bush runs in 2008, the Repukes can say it was fully investigated, and the jury found them to be not guilty (hung jury same de facto thing).

[Ian David]

17. You're trying to ruin The Spirit of Fitzmas! n/t

[originalpckelly]

14. Does anyone with half a brain think this CONSERVATIVE will make Bush look bad?

I knew they were smiling for a reason. Anyone so partisan as to work for the Washington Times should not be considered unbiased. Conservatives are not very good at setting their bias aside, just look at FOX News.

[Bitwit1234]

4. What I can't understand

is how could they find people for the jury that were not out and out democrats. DC is 99% democrat. And with the evidence Fitz gave there is no way a democrat, who is a heck of a lot more apt to listen to facts vote any other way but guilty. When a person lies, he lies there is no excuse. If the juror believes anything else they have to be a bush ass kisser. How could they pick only the jurors out of the 1%. Why did Fitz allow this to happen.

[B Calm]

6. If they can't reach a verdict, will it be re trialed?

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

9. Up to Fitz

If it's a hung jury, the prosecutor can elect to bring the case to trial again, or he can elect to drop it.

[eFriendly]

7. It depends a lot on if the jury is sequestered during deliberations or not.

In my experience with watching juries, sequestered jurors tend to want to finish up their work on Friday (if possible) so that they can have the weekend back home with their families. Non-sequestered jurors go home every night and enjoy their weekends with their families during their deliberations. And sometimes non-sequestered juries will even reach a tentative decision on Friday and maybe take the weekend to mull it over.

[OwnedByFerrets]

10. Im sure that shooter has a dossier on each one of these

people and has used it to their advantage. I put NOTHING past these criminals.

[displacedtexan]

11. Remember, there are 5 (count 'em-- 5) counts to consider...

and each count has multiple parts (only one part of each is needed to convict).

The indictment is 22 pages long.

[originalpckelly]

15. And they seem to be mythodical...

but I highly doubt that the one conservative juror who worked for the Washington Times will be able to return a guilty verdict.

[Spazito]

16. Exactly! It is not a simple case....

A responsible jury will take the time to go through each count thoroughly, examining the evidence/exhibits/testimony as it relates to each count. It seems to me this jury is being responsible and taking the time to get it right.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

12. This Is Ridiculously Empty Speculation, With All Due Respect. Complete Nonsense.

You act like it's so easy to predict jury action, yet it's one of the most perplexing things in law. You want to put forth a premise that it's so likely you're right based solely on the fact that it's Friday, as if you're some hidden genius that has insight into matters that no one else in law does and that's it's all just really easy to figure out. The premise is absurd. "The jury must be split because it's friday and they didn't reach a verdict". I mean, you seriously expect people to take you seriously as if this statement carries any merit whatsoever, merely because you want to put yourself forth as some experienced jury mind reader?

Sorry, I found this OP to be laughable.

[B Calm]

18. Remembering John Grisham's novel "The Runaway Jury"

sarcasm

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

19. Holy Cow They Made A Book Out Of That Movie? That's Wild!

:)

[B Calm]

20. and like most of his novels, the book is better than the movie. The book

was a trial against tobacco, and the movie was about guns..

[Mz Pip]

13. Seems to me

they are being thorough. Might take a few days to go over al the testimony and evidence in a 22 page indictment.

Mz Pip
:dem: