Stevens Jury Asking Questions

UPDATE (2:59 p.m.): After discussing the issue with attorneys, Judge Sullivan responded to the second jury note with this one: “The court cannot provide you additional instruction or evidence.”

After leaving 15 minutes early yesterday afternoon, citing the stress of deliberation, jurors in the trial of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens came back today apparently revived. And inquisitive. They’ve already passed U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan three notes. The first dealt with a simple oversight: It seems the panel's copy of the indictment was missing a page.

The second was a bit more complex: The jurors wanted clarity on the Senate reporting requirements for liabilities. Sullivan proposed to instruct the jurors that senators are required to disclose liability in excess of $10,000, but Stevens’ defense lawyers said that oversimplified things and advocated sending the jurors a copy of the actual requirements. They’ll be massaging the language while the jurors are on lunch break. The jury is scheduled to resume deliberation at 2 p.m.

The third note was mysterious: Sullivan declined to discuss it in open court and said he needed to research “the appropriate action for a trial judge to take” in crafting a response. The judge said he was certain either the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit or the D.C. Court of Appeals had contemplated the issue, whatever it is. He also asked counsel to weigh in on whether the note should be disclosed in the public docket. The BLT sure hopes so.