Posted on 04/15/2008 2:16:15 PM PDT by Joiseydude
MIAMI — A judge ordered jurors to keep deliberating Tuesday after they announced a second time they were deadlocked in the retrial of six men accused of scheming to blow up Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices.
U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard refused a defense request for mistrial, instead urging them to reach verdicts if at all possible.
"If you fail to reach a verdict, this case will be left open and may have to be retried again," Lenard told jurors in a set of instructions known as an Allen charge.
The ethnically diverse panel of seven men and five women has been deliberating for 12 days following a two-month trial. They first sent out a note indicating a stalemate Friday, but Lenard wouldn't let them quit.
A hung jury also resulted in a mistrial in December for alleged ringleader Narseal Batiste and five other members of the so-called "Liberty City Seven." One of the original group was acquitted.
Batiste attorney Ana M. Jhones said it will be futile to force this second jury to continue deliberating when it clearly is at a stalemate. Several jurors appeared visibly frustrated and angry when Lenard told them Tuesday to keep at it.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
They must be some of the Pennsylvania voters Obama was talking about.
They should try them in Chicago...they would find the scumbags guilty
Paging Mitch Rapp.
Johnny Cochran would agree.
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