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Thursday, May 27, 2010
Courts - " Judge probes possible rogue jury in cockfighting case: Juror admits surfing Internet in defiance of judge’s orders"
This is a pretty astonishing story from the Columbia, South Carolina paper, The State. Here is some of John Monk's report:
Choking back tears, a juror in the federal government’s recent cockfighting trial in which six defendants were found guilty took the stand herself Wednesday to reveal that one juror had defied the judge’s numerous orders not to surf the Internet to do independent research about the case.That rogue juror then brought pages of Internet research from the Wikipedia Web site into the jury room and held a private discussion about the case with three other jurors, the whistleblower juror testified.
U.S. Judge Cam Currie convened Wednesday’s hearing after the woman, publicly identified only as Juror No. 1, called her office after the trial and told a law clerk about possible jury misconduct. Each of the 12 jurors in the cockfighting case, held in early May, were subpoenaed to appear in court Wednesday to be questioned by Currie.
When it was his turn on the stand, Juror No.177 admitted using outside resources not available in the courtroom; juries are supposed to only consider courtroom evidence.
Currie indicated she may not rule on the alleged jury misconduct until late July, at the earliest.
But jurors who violate the rules can go to prison. And, depending on the seriousness of the misconduct, Currie could declare a mistrial and overturn the guilty verdicts against six people government lawyers called key players in major cockfights in Swansea and Williamsburg County.
The six defense lawyers who represented the six cockfighting defendants found guilty indicated after Wednesday’s hearing that the revelations would prompt them to move for a mistrial — which would cause the government to decide whether to retry the expensive case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nathan Williams and Debbie Barbier, who spent months preparing the government’s case and seven days trying it, declined comment.
None of the six defendants found guilty has been sentenced.
The trial, which climaxed more than two years of a secret probe targeting cockfighting rings, represented hundreds of thousands of dollars in court time, witness travel costs and undercover investigations that included video of cockfights in Swansea shot with a hidden camera.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 27, 2010 02:25 PM
Posted to Courts in general