The Conrad Black jury had its first full day of deliberations today. And — with thirty minutes left to their day — we have heard from them twice.
Here’s the rules in Chicago if the jury wants to communicate with the judge. The jury writes down what they want to say and then sends it to the court clerk. The court clerk sends a message to all the lawyers saying there is a jury note and that everyone should hustle into the courtroom. Lawyers and their clients (and reporters) have been spending the day near the courtroom at their offices or in their hotels.
Everyone shows up in court ten or 15 minutes after the court clerk tells everyone to show up.
Judge Amy St. Eve opens the note and reads it.
Here was the first note, for which we were summoned after 30 minutes after the jury began deliberations today:
“Dear Judge:
Today we will be meeting from 9 am to 4:45 pm.
On 6/29, we will meet from 9 am to 1 pm.
The Jury”
The second note came out in mid-afternoon. This time it was a little more substantial. The jury asked for a “Summary Exhibit” that the prosecution had created. This summary exhibit is a chart showing how much and where non-competition payments went for each of the transactions at issue in the trial.
To make that one-line request, lawyers and clients had to be summoned back to the courtroom. After the request, one lawyer said, “That’s it?”, to which Judge St. Eve replied, “Hey, I don’t write ‘em!”