June 23, 2005

Tom Kirkendall comments on the extended deliberations of the jury in the trial of Richard Scrushy.

The judge had to appoint an alternate juror after one of the regular jurors became ill. The addition of the alternate (who had not been present during deliberations) means that the jurors must re-start deliberations from the beginning. The judge even went so far as to collect all of the juror's notes and charts to ensure that they could not re-use anything they had developed before the alternate joined them.

The jury had previously told the judge they were deadlocked on June 3, only to be told to try harder. No one can know for sure, but the longer the deliberations continue, the more likely a hung jury or acquittal.

Scrush was at one point considered the poster child for criminal enforcement of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. But if a case that appears to be as straightforward as his can't get a jury verdict in under a month, one wonders whether prosecutors will ever be able to put together a case under SOX.