[News]
The jurors who decided Harvey Weinstein’s fate in his New York retrial were ordered to take a break and “cool down” earlier on Wednesday, as their discussions seemingly broke down amid shouting and threats.
The unusual admonishment came after a private meeting between a juror and the judge overseeing the trial — the third such conversation in a trial marked by jury problems — and led Mr. Weinstein to appeal directly to the judge for a mistrial.
The pause came only hours before the verdict on Wednesday, when the jury’s foreman asked to speak to the judge, Justice Curtis Farber, and was taken into a backroom where he told the judge and the lawyers his concerns.
Nearly 30 minutes later, Justice Farber returned to the bench and said the man had said that he was upset that others were trying to change his mind. At least one juror, the judge said, told the man, “I will see you outside one day.”
The extraordinary exchange led to Mr. Weinstein’s directly addressing the judge, saying the infighting inside the jury of seven women and five men, was resulting in an unfair trial.
“This is not right for me, for me the person on trial here,” he said. “This is my life on the line and you know what, it’s not fair. It’s simple. It’s not fair.”
He asked the judge to declare a mistrial and “find another jury that doesn’t fight.”
Justice Farber thanked Mr. Weinstein and tried to reassure him. “I’m not going to allow any injustice to happen to you,” he said. The judge told Mr. Weinstein that it was not the first time similar issues had developed among jurors.
“Jurors fight,” Judge Farber said. “They act childish at times. They get heated.”
The episode provided another peek into the friction that can often develop among jurors in high-stakes trials, disagreements that generally remain behind closed doors.
It was not the first time that conflict among the jurors hearing the Weinstein retrial had come into view in open court in the four days since they began their discussions. The juror was the third to speak to Judge Farber since Friday.
On Friday, a juror said he had overheard others on the jury — in an elevator and outside the courthouse on Thursday — talking about another member of the group. What he had heard, he believed, amounted to misconduct. Judge Farber thanked the man and the jury returned to their deliberations.
On Monday, the foreman came forward for the first time to say that he was concerned about the arguments in the jury room. The other jurors, he told the judge and the lawyers outside the courtroom, were also talking about Mr. Weinstein’s past.
“I don’t hear talking about his past,” the juror said, adding, “I’m here for taking the decision myself for what happened at the time, in the moment.”
Judge Farber asked him to return to the deliberations and gave the full panel of jurors instructions on civil deliberations. Mr. Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur L. Aidala, asked for a mistrial, which was denied.
A third juror, a woman, requested to speak to the judge later that day to let him know that the deliberations had been going well.
Mr. Weinstein was convicted of rape and a criminal sexual act at trial in Manhattan in 2020. The verdict, which resulted in a 23-year prison sentence, was seen as a watershed moment for the #MeToo movement. He was subsequently convicted of sexual assault in Los Angeles and sentenced to 16 years in prison there. He is appealing that verdict.
Last year, New York’s highest court overturned the Manhattan conviction, and the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, said his office would move to retry Mr. Weinstein.
In April, after a new criminal sexual act charge was added to the case, jury selection for the retrial began.
[English News]
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