The jury in the Scooter Libby trial seems to be made up of interesting and independent types.
Before the 14 jurors departed for a long break this afternoon, they filed into the courtroom, with all but one wearing bright red T-shirts with a white valentine heart over their clothes, to the uncertain laughter of many in the courtroom. But as one juror, a retired North Carolina schoolteacher, rose to speak aloud, Judge Walton became visibly anxious that the juror might say something inappropriate that would threaten the trial. Jurors are not supposed to speak during court sessions and are supposed to make any concerns known through notes to the bench.
The juror said that they were wearing the T-shirts to express their fondness for the judge and the court staff on Valentine’s Day. He then added, to the judge’s growing discomfort, that they were unanimous in this sentiment, but they would all be independent in judging the evidence.
The one juror who apparently declined to don a T-shirt was a woman who had been a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
I look forward to hearing Judge Reggie Walton's instructions to the jury in the matter of Scooter Libby. Libby's defense team played fast and loose with the law and with Judge Walton. Walton's neither fool nor dupe (though we can expect plenty fools and dupes on the bench "going forward," as they say, thanks to the appointments made by the Bush adminstration).
A big chunk of evidence used by Libby's defense lawyers was predicated on Libby himself testifying. Having made that deal with the judge I. Lewis Libby, on the advice of counsel, did not testify.
Looks like the judge made his judgment felt.
The lawyers defending I. Lewis Libby Jr. against perjury charges rested their case today, but not before suffering a series of defeats in legal rulings by the presiding judge. The judge, Reggie B. Walton, expressed in the strongest terms yet that he had been misled by the defense team about whether Mr. Libby would take the stand in his own defense. Judge Walton said he “believed all along in the process that Mr. Libby was going to testify” and that his lawyers were now “playing games with the process.”
He made his remarks out with the jury out of the courtroom as he ruled that the defense would no longer be able to use some evidence, including something the jury has already heard: a statement saying that Mr. Libby, as chief of staff and national security adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, “worked long hours, received daily intelligence briefings and attended many meetings concerning important matters of national security.”
Walton's instructions to the jury should be interesting. I don't think he will say, in a bland, non-committal voice, that he expects the jury to forget ("forget" is a big element in this case) what they've already heard thanks to the misconduct of defense lawyer Theodore Wells. He'll be cool, I'm sure. But what he has to say may not be very favorable to Irv Lewis Libby's defense team.
We'll see.
