The signal that negotiations have broken down is the fact that the jury asked to be released an hour early today.
The presiding juror (foreperson) also asked if they could take the jury instructions home with them, and the judge granted the request. This is not good, because now they can spend hours looking stuff up on the Internet, which they should not be able to do.
I think they are not allowed access to open source, like internet, news stand, teevee, radio news. I agree not good to give jurors the instructions to take home. If they want to work on it, work on it in a group. If you’re tired, take a break, dinner, sleep, see you tomorrow.
But info access is on the honor system, most likely. If the person asking breaks the rule, I bet somebody rats them out, and “poof,” the Karen is gone.
You have a great point there about leaving an hour early. I agree that is a sign things are fraying.
If they intended to look up stuff on the internet, they didn't need to ask if they can take the instructions home. Jury instructions are on the net... unless they don't know how to use the search function... in that case they wouldn't know how to look up stuff.