Deliberations Continue in CIA Leak Case

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby leaves Federal Court in Washington, Monday, Feb. 26, 2007, after the day's jury deliberations for his perjury trial. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) (Gerald Herbert - AP)

WASHINGTON -- The jury is wearing jeans! The scuttlebutt raced like a battlefront bulletin Tuesday through the five dozen prosecutors, defense attorneys and reporters camped in the federal courthouse awaiting a verdict in the perjury trial of ex-White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Most trial lawyers and reporters believe jurors dress up when they expect to reach a verdict and don casual clothes if they've still got lots of work to do.

The secrecy of jury deliberations provides precious few clues about where juries are headed.

"It isn't like electing a pope, where there are smoke signals after each ballot," said Edward B. MacMahon Jr., a Virginia attorney who defended Zacarias Moussaoui against charges related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Sometimes a jury drops a clue by asking the judge to clarify a legal issue or to read them some testimony again. But Libby's jurors have asked only for a large flip chart, masking tape, Post-it notes and photos of the witnesses _ interpreted as a sign they intended to methodically evaluate the trial's 14 days of testimony and exhibits.

The jury got the case last Wednesday, but they had deliberated barely more than four days when they went home Tuesday without a verdict. At day's end, they sent a question to U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, who said he would disclose and answer it Wednesday morning.

Last Wednesday morning was consumed by jury instructions from U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton. They were off for the weekend. And nearly half of Monday was lost while Walton decided to dismiss one juror who had read or seen something about the case.

"This amount of time doesn't mean anything. This looks like a pretty conscientious jury," said MacMahon, who observed a day of the trial. "If it goes deep into next week, then you may start to think there may be some problems reaching a verdict."

E. Lawrence Barcella Jr., a Washington defense attorney who spent 16 years as a prosecutor in this courthouse, said there's a general presumption that guilty verdicts come quicker, but "I don't believe in rules of thumb."

"I have seen juries where it seems to me it should take five minutes and it takes five days and vice versa," Barcella said, noting that some juries here have taken five weeks.

Also wary of conventional wisdom, MacMahon said a Virginia jury took seven days to convict a client of his on terrorism charges and a New York jury took 13 days to convict a lawyer of aiding an imprisoned terrorist.

White-collar cases like Libby's trial for perjury and obstruction of justice "are much more complicated than drug cases," MacMahon said.