From the Sun-Times:
Ryan jury gets back to work with 2 alternates
March 30, 2006
BY NATASHA KORECKI Federal Courts Reporter
Jury deliberations started anew in former Gov. George Ryan's public corruption
trial Wednesday, but the panel quickly requested some of the same tools it did
the first time it tried coming up with a verdict.
Jurors again asked for a list laying out the more than 100 witnesses who
testified at the nearly six-month trial. They again asked for an overhead projector
that the judge had "cleansed" from the jury room Tuesday.
The jury also picked the same foreperson.
And jurors, despite being told to return to the jury room with two new jurors
after discussing the case for eight days, do not appear to be in a hurry.
The panel on Wednesday asked U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer for an
April calendar to determine the court's holidays. There aren't any, but Pallmeyer
told them they could set their own schedules.
The jury will keep the same 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday
schedule.
Judge can still grant mistrial
Averting a mistrial for now, Pallmeyer told the jury to restart talks on
Tuesday after she took an unusual move and seated two alternates in place of two
jurors she dismissed after they failed to disclose their criminal backgrounds.
The previous panel had already deliberated for eight days.
Pallmeyer told the new set of jurors to wipe the slate clean and start over.
In a 15-minute talk to the public Tuesday, Pallmeyer said she wanted deliberations
to go on, but at least six times noted she could change her mind and grant a defense
mistrial request.