The jury weighing the destiny Ghislaine Maxwell stated Tuesday they had been “making progress” on the finish of the fourth full day of deliberations on the intently watched intercourse trafficking trial the place a decide expressed concern New York Metropolis’s coronavirus surge may derail proceedings.
Decide Alison J. Nathan granted jurors’ request to depart at 5 p.m. — an hour sooner than deliberate — however advised them they had been anticipated to work towards a verdict the remainder of the week, if wanted. Earlier Tuesday, Nathan advised attorneys out of the presence of the jury that the “astronomical spike” within the variety of coronavirus circumstances necessitated jurors working longer hours.
“We now face a excessive and escalating danger that jurors and trial individuals might must quarantine,” Nathan stated. “We’re merely in a distinct place relating to the pandemic than we had been every week in the past.”
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Ghislaine Maxwell trial jury sign that verdict just isn’t close to
In her rationalization to the attorneys, Nathan voiced what had largely gone unmentioned in her earlier requests to get the jury to work time beyond regulation: the worry that sickened jurors may drive a mistrial.
“We now face a excessive and escalating danger that jurors and trial individuals might must quarantine,” Nathan stated. “We’re merely in a distinct place relating to the pandemic than we had been every week in the past.”
In the course of the first week of deliberations, the jury stopped at 5 p.m., however Nathan advised jurors late Monday that they need to be ready to remain till not less than 6 p.m. shifting ahead. Regardless of that, the decide agreed to launch them early after they assured her, in a observe: “Our deliberations are shifting alongside and we’re making progress.”
The decide had advised attorneys she was contemplating informing jurors she would require deliberations each day — together with the New Yr’s weekend, if obligatory — till they attain a verdict. However after protection attorneys pushed again, she selected Tuesday to not inform jurors that weekend deliberations had been a risk.
Fueled by the omicron variant, coronavirus circumstances within the metropolis have rocketed from a mean of about 3,400 a day within the week that ended Dec. 12 to 22,000 within the week that ended Sunday.
Laura Menninger, a protection lawyer, advised Nathan on Monday that any suggestion that the jury keep later “is starting to sound like urging them to rush up.”
“We’d object to attempting to induce them to remain later if they aren’t asking to take action and aren’t expressing any problem in continuing with the deliberations that they’re at the moment endeavor,” Menninger stated.
Menninger famous that the jury was persevering with to request transcripts of trial testimony and different supplies that point out they’re working diligently to determine six expenses alleging Maxwell performed an important function in Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage women between 1994 and 2004.
Protection attorneys have stated Maxwell, 60, is getting used as a scapegoat by prosecutors after the U.S. authorities was embarrassed by Epstein’s suicide at a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019 whereas he awaited a intercourse trafficking trial.
Maxwell was arrested in July 2020 and has remained in jail after Nathan repeatedly rejected bail makes an attempt, together with a $28.5 million package deal with 24-hour armed guards to make sure she didn’t flee.
© 2021 The Canadian Press
