LEGAL/POLITICAL FIGURES: “For the second time this week a federal jury has said it cannot reach a verdict in the corruption trial of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey…
The jury sent out a note at about 11:30 a.m. saying that it has carefully reviewed all the evidence and is still unable to agree.
Prosecutors sought to convince the judge that he should instruct jurors to at least try to reach a partial verdict, if they can agree on some of the counts.
The judge replied that the jury note is quite clear, and that such an instruction would border on jury coercion. He instead decided that he and lawyers from both sides would interview jurors individually. That meeting began at about noon.
Thursday’s note comes on the eighth overall day of jury deliberations and the fourth since a juror was replaced by an alternate, prompting the judge to instruct the panel to start from scratch…
The jury deliberations followed a trial featuring more than 50 witnesses who testified for more than eight weeks.”
-Thomas MacMillan, “Jury Is Deadlocked in Sen. Menendez Public-Corruption Trial,” The Wall Street Journal online, Nov. 16, 2017 12:16pm