Now the games afoot in the Conrad Black trial. Its gone to the jury. My gut instinct is that this could very well wind up to be a hung jury but who the hell am I.
And it will all take place in that jury room with time working against Black and his associates. You see this is the worst possible time to go into a jury phase. It is only days before the 5 day long July 4th celebrations.
Further it will also depend heavily on how entrenched the believer jurists are. If one or jurors is dedicated to a verdict. Then they have the edge. Rare is the time when jurists believe that a person is innocent will they stick it out over the long family oriented weekend.
The defense attorneys are the ones that are scared at this moment because such a time acelerates the likelihood of a guilty verdict. And US Juries are rarely overturned unless malfiesance is proven.
It goes like this in my personal estimation. If the jury cottons onto the fact that a long time associate like Radler plead guilty, regardless of whether or not he lied before, it means the others are just as guilty as he is. Only Radler owned up to his guilt. The others did not take the stand because they would have been forced to perjure their denial testimony.
If Black is found guilty then it was the failure of the defense, the fear of the defense to put him on the stand. This lack of confidence sways like a ghost through his trial. OJ wasn't put on the stand for good reason but none of those reasons exist here. It was important for Black to go on the stand and his own lawyers failed in that they didn't have the confidence that he could pull it off. I think he could've got on the stand and won the hearts of the jury. He possesses the intelligence and the acumen to do it.
At the moment its 30% for guilt, 30%percent for innocent and a full 40% chance that this will be a hung jury. Regardless the game is afoot and the bobsleigh crew has been launched. Allawowa!
The story is below.
****************
Case against Black, associates goes to jury
Bloomberg News
Published June 27, 2007, 2:54 PM CDT
A federal jury began deliberating the case against former Hollinger International Inc. Chairman Conrad Black after prosecutors told jurors he's "sunk" if they believe witnesses who testified at a 15-week fraud trial.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Sussman told jurors in federal court in Chicago that defense lawyers want them to believe that 13 government witnesses lied in their testimony during the trial.
"Because if that testimony stands, they are sunk," he said.
Black, 62, former Hollinger Vice President Peter Atkinson, 60, and ex-finance chief John Boultbee, 63, are charged with taking millions of dollars in noncompete payments as they sold more than $3 billion in Hollinger assets from 1998 to 2001. Former General Counsel Mark Kipnis, 59, is accused of aiding the scheme. Each faces more than 20 years in prison if convicted.
After his remarks, Sussman agreed to drop one of two tax- fraud charges against Atkinson, telling U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve that there was a lack of direct evidence linking the former executive to the crime. Atkinson still faces six counts of mail and wire fraud related to his receipt of the noncompete payments and one tax fraud charge.
St. Eve instructed jurors on the law in the case and handed it to them for deliberations just before lunchtime.
The jury will work until 3 p.m. local time today, she said.
St. Eve told jurors to use caution in weighing the testimony of Black's former partner F. David Radler.
During the trial, defense lawyers attacked Radler's credibility. The former Hollinger president testified that Black helped direct a scheme to steal $60 million from the company. Radler pleaded guilty as part of a deal with the government and will be sentenced after the trial.
Paul Healy, Hollinger's former chief of investor relations, received immunity from prosecution and testified that he was told to misrepresent Black's purchase of a New York apartment in 2000.
"You may give the testimony of Healy and Radler such weight as you feel it deserves, keeping in mind that it must be considered with caution and great care," St. Eve instructed the jurors before they began deliberating.
Prosecutors claim the defendants, along with Radler, masked the illegal payments as compensation for agreeing not to compete with companies that bought Hollinger newspapers and other assets.
Leaving the downtown Chicago courthouse, Black, accompanied by his wife, Barbara Amiel Black, his daughter and two sons, walked past a throng of reporters and photographers to a waiting white Cadillac Escalade. He declined to comment.
Black remains confident of his acquittal, his lawyer, Edward Greenspan, told reporters outside the courthouse.
Greenspan said the Black family is holding up well through a trial he described as "tense and very nerve-wracking."
He said he's not impressed by the reported 95 percent conviction rate of the U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago.
New York Yankees baseball pitcher "Roger Clemens loses the occasional baseball game," Greenspan said. "This is a unique case."
Randall Samborn, spokesman in the U.S. Attorney's office, said he didn't have specific data on the office's conviction rate.
Greenspan wouldn't predict the outcome of the case. "It's impossible to know what a jury will do," he said. He also said it's impossible to predict how long jurors may take.
The charges against Black include obstruction of justice for removing boxes of documents from his Toronto offices two years ago. St. Eve instructed jurors that prosecutors must prove Black intended to obstruct one of three official proceedings: a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, a criminal investigation of Black by a federal grand jury or the pending criminal proceeding before the U.S. District Court.
"You must unanimously agree on which of the official proceedings, if any, Black intended to obstruct," St. Eve said.
The trial started with jury selection on March 14.
The case is U.S. v Black, 05cr727, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Sussman told jurors in federal court in Chicago that defense lawyers want them to believe that 13 government witnesses lied in their testimony during the trial.
"Because if that testimony stands, they are sunk," he said.
Black, 62, former Hollinger Vice President Peter Atkinson, 60, and ex-finance chief John Boultbee, 63, are charged with taking millions of dollars in noncompete payments as they sold more than $3 billion in Hollinger assets from 1998 to 2001. Former General Counsel Mark Kipnis, 59, is accused of aiding the scheme. Each faces more than 20 years in prison if convicted.
After his remarks, Sussman agreed to drop one of two tax- fraud charges against Atkinson, telling U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve that there was a lack of direct evidence linking the former executive to the crime. Atkinson still faces six counts of mail and wire fraud related to his receipt of the noncompete payments and one tax fraud charge.
St. Eve instructed jurors on the law in the case and handed it to them for deliberations just before lunchtime.
The jury will work until 3 p.m. local time today, she said.
St. Eve told jurors to use caution in weighing the testimony of Black's former partner F. David Radler.
During the trial, defense lawyers attacked Radler's credibility. The former Hollinger president testified that Black helped direct a scheme to steal $60 million from the company. Radler pleaded guilty as part of a deal with the government and will be sentenced after the trial.
Paul Healy, Hollinger's former chief of investor relations, received immunity from prosecution and testified that he was told to misrepresent Black's purchase of a New York apartment in 2000.
"You may give the testimony of Healy and Radler such weight as you feel it deserves, keeping in mind that it must be considered with caution and great care," St. Eve instructed the jurors before they began deliberating.
Prosecutors claim the defendants, along with Radler, masked the illegal payments as compensation for agreeing not to compete with companies that bought Hollinger newspapers and other assets.
Leaving the downtown Chicago courthouse, Black, accompanied by his wife, Barbara Amiel Black, his daughter and two sons, walked past a throng of reporters and photographers to a waiting white Cadillac Escalade. He declined to comment.
Black remains confident of his acquittal, his lawyer, Edward Greenspan, told reporters outside the courthouse.
Greenspan said the Black family is holding up well through a trial he described as "tense and very nerve-wracking."
He said he's not impressed by the reported 95 percent conviction rate of the U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago.
New York Yankees baseball pitcher "Roger Clemens loses the occasional baseball game," Greenspan said. "This is a unique case."
Randall Samborn, spokesman in the U.S. Attorney's office, said he didn't have specific data on the office's conviction rate.
Greenspan wouldn't predict the outcome of the case. "It's impossible to know what a jury will do," he said. He also said it's impossible to predict how long jurors may take.
The charges against Black include obstruction of justice for removing boxes of documents from his Toronto offices two years ago. St. Eve instructed jurors that prosecutors must prove Black intended to obstruct one of three official proceedings: a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, a criminal investigation of Black by a federal grand jury or the pending criminal proceeding before the U.S. District Court.
"You must unanimously agree on which of the official proceedings, if any, Black intended to obstruct," St. Eve said.
The trial started with jury selection on March 14.
The case is U.S. v Black, 05cr727, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (Chicago).
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