on MSNBC - Looks like mistrial in Libby trial

[AngryAmish]

somebody get a link!

on edit - link

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Gah!!!!!!!!

[Dantona08]

2. This should be interesting.

Wonder what grounds?

[AngryAmish]

4. They say a juror saw some outside media and brought it into the jury room

he/she used outside media in deliberations.

[Dantona08]

7. All that work down the drain.

Fer christ sake, even anyone who has watched an episode of Law and Order knows better. What an idiot. :eyes:

[maxrandb]

8. Bet the juror is a Faux Fan

Probably from the Hannity and Colmes show

or,

It could be that hit piece by Victoria Toensig(sp) in the Washington Post recently.

[maxrandb]

11. Victoria Toensig(sp) should be in jail

for jury tampering. That peice she wrote for the Post was disgusting and purposeful.

[notadmblnd]

17. There's no excuse for it. They were instructed more than once.

it could be nothing other than deliberate. Can the juror be charged with anything?

[KansDem]

20. "a juror saw some outside media and brought it into the jury room"

So what does Anna Nichol Smith and Brittany Spears have to do with this case?

[Cass]

28. This juror had to know better than to do this accidentally.

They received instructions about this kind of thing. To be exposed is one thing, but to use it in the jury room in deliberations is outrageous. Damn.

[Monkeyman]

3. No Link CNN just reported Jury exposed to outside info

[wake.up.america]

10. I'm not a lawyer. Does this mean a re-trial? Will there be an investigation...

as to how the jury was exposed to outside.

This stinks to high heaven. This is another long slide down the pole of democracy, I fear.

This was set up by the BA.

[Thothmes]

43. Retrial

I believe that is the Prosecuting Attorneys call. He can retry the case, if he thinks its feasible.

[elcondor]

5. DAMMIT!

They should have been sequestered ...

[htuttle]

6. Do they have alternates? Can they switch one in at this point?

[displacedtexan]

9. There's one left, I think.

There were 2, but one juror got sick and had to be replaced.

[TomInTib]

13. If one juror contaminated the body, it's a done deal.

That is, if the juror with outside info exposed the balance of the jury to the same info, this trial has flown right out of the window.

I will bet it was the old lady who didn't go along with the Valentines deal.

Damn.

This could go on for years.

[librechik]

14. they are trying now to determine if the entire jury was exposed

per Schuster on MSNBC judge talking to jury foreman in chambers with Fitz.

[librechik]

12. Fitz and Walton in chambers; orders for The Court to assemble...

stay tuned

[MaineDem]

15. Damn it!!! n/t

[Monkeyman]

16. Who is the one who worked for the Washington Post any bets

[Ian David]

18. Sam Seder is talking about it now

I'm going to guess Juror No. 0677 caused the problem.



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

[AngryAmish]

21. THat is why people like this must be done away with

[hang a left]

26. she was a freakin plant

bethcha money

[EST]

19. I think most people expected this

Imo, the big boys allowed this charade simply as a distraction-another shiny thing-to keep us from seeing the real trick.

The real importance of this trial, the linking of Rove-Cheneybush-scooter-Ari-right wing perverted press has now gone into public domain. Seriously interested folks now know exactly how and why it all came down.

[sabra]

22. more CNN: Libby jurors questioned about media exposure

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/02/26/cia.leak.ap/index.html

Libby jurors questioned about media exposure

• NEW: Judge questions jurors after one read or saw something on the case
• Jury in I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's perjury trial moves into second week of debate
• The eight women and four men began deliberations last Wednesday
• Jurors requested a flip chart, masking tape, Post-it notes

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorneys and a federal judge began questioning each juror in the CIA leak trial Monday after one juror apparently saw or read something about the case over the weekend.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton has ordered jurors to avoid contact with media coverage of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's monthlong trial. He said Monday that one juror was exposed to information about the trial over the weekend.

Jurors occasionally saw some news coverage during the monthlong trial. Unlike those incidents, Walton said Monday that he worried that the information may have been passed to several jurors. He said each juror would be questioned behind closed doors.

The decision came as jurors began their fourth day of deliberations in the case and raised the possibility of a mistrial if jurors had been prejudiced in the highly publicized and politically charged case.

[MaineDem]

23. On the surface, this sounds "planted"

Someone didn't want this trial to continue.

I hate to say this, but can you imagine the uproar if this was a Dem White House?

[wake.up.america]

24. I demand a thorough investigation.... This crap has to stop, if this was a set-up.

[UTUSN]

25. So much for this "HIGHLY EDUCATED' effing jury!!1 Those FLAKES!!1

It was bizarre on Valentine's day that they appeared in court in Valentine's T-shirts and read that EFFING statement to the court, with one juror refusing to participate. They are the epitome of elites playing games.

[HereSince1628]

40. But, but, it was the juror who refused to be cute with the Valentine's t shirt

that was dismissed.

And in making his decision Walton said it was not a matter of irresponsibility among the jurors.

[maddezmom]

27. AP: Jury in Libby perjury trial to be questioned

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jurors in the perjury trial of former vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby may have been exposed to information on the case outside of court, the judge said on Monday.

Judge Reggie Walton said he would talk to the 12 jury members individually to determine what they may have learned and whether it would affect their ability to impartially weigh evidence in the case.

"One of the jurors may have been exposed to information related to this case outside of the courtroom, and that conceivably others may have, as a result of that, been exposed," Walton said.

Jurors are supposed to avoid news coverage of the trial until they have reached a verdict.

The jury of eight women and four men has been deliberating since last Wednesday.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070226/us_nm/usa_crime_libby_dc_3

:argh:

[Ian David]

29. Sam Sedar says it's looking pretty serious.

Juror brought news coverage into deliberations, and used it to argue in front of the other jurors.

Sounds like deliberate sabotage.

Sedar says FireDogLake.com is doing live blogging on this.

[maddezmom]

30. ***One juror has been dismissed****

[Ian David]

31. Live blogging from inside the courtroom at FireDogLake.com

Meanwhile, Back at the Courthouse…
By Jane Hamsher @ 7:37 am

I'm at the courthouse, and as Christy said in her update, one of the jurors was exposed to media coverage of the trial. Nobody really expected anything early this morning, so everyone is scrambling into the media room to try and figure out what's going on. Both teams are in the courtroom, and Fitzgerald, Wells, Jeffress and the judge are back with the jurors. Lots of finger drumming, toe tapping and leg swinging on the part of those left waiting. I'm sure the message from the judge to come back to court this morning was like a tazer jolt to everyone's already jangled nerves this morning.

What does this all mean? Well I, like everyone else, look to Christy:

They will voir dire the juror in question, as well as all of the members of the jury to see what that juror saw and what, if any, impact it had in deliberations. It could be as innocuous as seeing a headline.
I'm wondering if this is a product of the Toensing nullification argument special in the WaPo, to be perfectly honest.

Once they go through the discussion with the jurors on the record, there will be some determination made as to whether or not there is a substantial impact on the jury deliberations — or whether there is cause for a mistrial. If a mistrial is declared, they will have to retry the whole case.

What is more likely is that the judge will determine that what the juror saw did not have a substantial impact. Judge Walton will then admonish the jury not to have contact with media — period. He may decide to sequester the jury from here on out. He will likely issue a cautionary instruction on how this should or should not enter the jury room. But we'll have to see what the level of exposure was to know what will happen.

And now we wait.

More:
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/02/26/7460/



Also:

***BREAKING: There has been exposure of at least one of the jurors to media coverage of the trial. There is discussion going on in chambers with Judge Walton and counsel for both sides as to how to proceed. There will likely be individual voir dire (discussions) with each and every juror now to determine if there is a taint to the jury process. We won't know anything about whether things will proceed until that has concluded. There is a possibility of a mistrial being declared but, again, we will not know anything unless and until the judge and attorneys speak with the jury foreperson and all of the jurors, and make their determination as to how things will or will not proceed from there. More news as we get it.***
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/02/26/libby-trial-what-is-an-allen-charge/

[dubyaD40web]

32. FDL update

Walton: One jurur has now been dismissed based upon the knowledge of her part that she did have information based on this case. It wasn't intentional, but what she ahd exposure to disqualifies her from further deliberations of this case, so I need to know what counsel's position is as to how to proceed.

Wells: It is the position of defense that jury deliberation should continue with a jury of 11 and that at this juncture an alternate should not be put onto the jury, because as we understqnd it if a new juror is appointed they must start deliberations all over again which is something in our opinion would be prejudicial to Mr. Libby. That would be a jury of 11. If we have a situation that for some reason another juror is lost, it is such that we would be left down to 10 and we believe your honor would have the ability to appoint the alternates in, so we're not on the "cliff of a mistrial." Don't want to throw away 2 1/2 days of deliberations when these jurors are obviously making their way through the charges, and would be highly unfair to Mr. Libby.

FitZ: The gov't would prefer 12 jurors. If you're going to replace jurors anew that it's preferable to do it after 2 1/2 days of deliberation. We think there is a preference for 12 jurors and we think there is a risk that if someone gets ill we get into dangerous territory of 11 jurors.

Walton: Don't think there is any reason to believe this jury was irresponsible — info from juror did not taint the others. They have deliberated for 2 1/2 days, don't want to throw away that work. If something does unforseeably happen to another juror then we sill have the option of recalling the alternates. I did tell them before they left they should continue to not let themselves be exposed to this case from outside sources. So rather than throw away the 2 1/2 days devoted to this effort, I will allow them to continue their deliberations.

[Whoa_Nelly]

33. JUROR DISMISSED--Breaking MSNBC

[rodeodance]

34. Judge Walton just ruled that deliberations will go forward with 11 jurors.

Judge Walton just ruled that deliberations will go forward with 11 jurors.

[MaineDem]

35. Apparently, both lawyers have agreed to this

MSNBC analyst said this will mean that a claim for mistrial based on this decision will have no merit.

[rocktivity]

37. Whew!

But what was that juror thinking--that he or she wanted out?

:applause:
rocknation

[Jacobin]

36. I'll bet it was the juror who was the former Moonie Times reporter

She should be put in jail

[rocktivity]

38. If she works for the media

she never should have been on the jury in the first place!

:headbang:
rocknation

[maddezmom]

39. Reuters: Juror dismissed in Libby perjury trial will continue to deliberate with 11 jurors

Juror dismissed in Libby perjury trial
26 Feb 2007 16:15:38 GMT
Source: Reuters

(Updates with dismissed juror)

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - One juror in the perjury trial of former vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby was dismissed on Monday after she told the judge she had been exposed to information about the case outside of court.

Judge Reggie Walton said the jury would continue to deliberate with 11 members.

"It's imperative that you not have any contact with any information regarding this case from any source outside this courtroom," Walton told the 11 remaining jurors.

Had an alternate been called to replace the dismissed juror, the jury would have had to begin its deliberations anew. The jury, which consisted of eight women and four men, has been deliberating since last Wednesday.

Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, is charged with lying to investigators as they sought to determine who leaked the identity of CIA analyst Valerie Plame in 2003 after her husband accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence to build its case for the Iraq war.

more:http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N26294581.htm

[confludemocrat]

41. She was dismissed. How can she deliberate with the 11 others?

anyway, you can't have meant what your headline says

[saracat]

42. Poster meant the remaining 11 will deliberate