Possumblog

Well, that's odd.

Judge encourages Siegelman jury to keep working

By BOB JOHNSON
The Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The judge in the government corruption trial of former Gov. Don Siegelman and three others gave jurors a pep talk Wednesday, encouraging them to keep working to reach verdicts following 32 days of testimony and arguments.

U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller said his comments to jurors, who are on their fifth day of deliberations, were not intended to be what's known as an "Allen" or "dynamite" charge, normally given when juries are deadlocked.

He said he was just trying to encourage jurors to continue working and to remind them that they could return a partial verdict if they all agree on some charges in the 34-count indictment and not others, or if they all agree on charges against some of the four defendants and not others. [...]

Odd mainly because there have been no published reports that the jury has been discouraged or unpeppy. The judge seems to think, at least according to this report, that they might be needlessly rehashing things in order to see if they can reach a unanimous verdict on everything, which he noted to them was not necessary.

If there is a conviction, I imagine this will be one of the items brought up on appeal--the defense is all up in arms that the jury was given this instruction, despite the fact that in their public declamations, none of the charges are true and are all just politically motivated stunts. It's an indication, at least to me, that the defense might just have some doubt that everyone will buy their tales of good friends in high places swapping favors is just what everyone does.

If they really believed what they'd been spouting, I think I would have gotten up and made a big deal in front of the jury that you didn't care if they considered them separately or not because they were all bogus, but just as a matter of formality, I was just going to object anyway.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at June 22, 2006 09:25 AM