CIA leak trial juror exposed to media coverage dismissed from jury; Did alternate juror appear 'openly hostile' to Libby?
Update: Did alternate juror appear 'openly hostile' to Libby?
The CIA leak case may be "on the verge of a mistrial," as a juror has been exposed to outside media reports, MSNBC's David Shuster reports.
"The jury now, which is in its fourth day of deliberations, has a major problem which could put this entire case on the verge of a mistrial," Shuster said. "The jury foreperson sent the judge a note this morning, saying that one of the jurors in this panel had contact with news coverage of this case and used that information as part of the jury deliberations with others."
Shuster added, "In other words, this outside news coverage seeped into deliberations despite the judge adamantly demanding that jurors not watch any news coverage; that they judge this case strictly on what is presented in court. This could be a huge problem. And what the court is now doing is, the judge and the attorneys, in chambers, are asking the jury foreperson exactly what information has been essentially been moved into jury deliberations, who was the juror who came in contact with it, what did that juror say to the other jurors."
"And then after the court is done talking to the foreperson, the Judge and the attorneys on both sides will then go individually, one at a time if necessary, to question each individual juror about what impact all of this had," Shuster continued. "In most cases, when a Judge has said there can be no consideration of outside information, and that information gets into jury deliberations, in most cases the court will declare a mistrial."
From coverage of the latest events at Firedoglake: "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."
According to Reuters, Judge Walton said, "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."
Juror dismissed
CNN reports that one female juror was dismissed from the case, and that they will now proceed with only eleven jurors, so no mistrial was called. The dismissed juror is reportedly a white woman in her seventies, and is curator at a museum.
According to CNN, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald wanted an alternate juror brought in, and objected to continuing with only eleven jurors, but Judge Walton overruled.
MSNBC also reported that Libby was seen smiling in the courtroom throughout the discussions between the judge and lawyers.
Did alternate juror appear 'openly hostile' to Libby?
In a later report, Shuster speculated that the body language of one of the alternates suggests she was hostile to the defense.
"The first alternate who was up, she sat in the very first row of the jury box," said Shuster. "She took extensive notes."
Shuster continued, "And during the defense close of this case, she expressed some body language that was openly hostile to the defense. She was crossing her arms, she had her jaw clenched. And then when prosecutor Fitzgerald was closing she seemed to relax and smile a bit more."
"So the entire strategy about whether to move to the twelfth or keep the eleven might've been simply dictated by the defense not wanting this alternate to join the jury deliberations based on a bad feeling that they may have gotten during the court," Shuster theorized. "Same thing with the prosecution, they may have wanted her."
The following video clip is taken from Shuster's report on the alternate juror:
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