Report: 10 of 12 Cosby jurors wanted to convict

Final hours of deliberation in case described

Acting on a petition from media organizations, a Montgomery County judge on Wednesday unsealed the names of the jurors at Bill Cosby’s sexual-assault trial, but ordered that they not publicly discuss the deliberations that led to last weekend’s mistrial.

Within hours, though, that order appeared to have been broken. ABC News reported Wednesday night that one juror, whom it did not identify, said that 10 of the 12 wanted to convict Mr. Cosby, but were blocked by two intractable holdouts.

The juror did not identify the holdouts or their reasoning, and described the final hours of the 52hour deliberation as tense and infuriating.

“People would just start crying out of nowhere, we wouldn’t even be talking about [the case] — and people would just start crying,” the juror said, according to ABC.

Though unconfirmed, that report appeared to be the first glimpse of the reasons behind the jurors’ marathon deadlock and how close the panel was to a verdict. According to the juror interviewed by ABC, when deliberations began, the seven men and five women on the panel were leaning toward acquitting Mr. Cosby on claims he sexually assaulted Andrea Constand at his home in 2004.

The account emerged hours after Judge Steven T. O’Neill’s fivepage ruling acknowledged that the law gives the media “a qualified First Amendment right to the

pills] to her, and then later when he saw what was up, maybe he figured, ‘Maybe I’ll do something,’” the panel member told ABC.

Judge O’Neill declared the mistrial Saturday morning when the jury reported being hopelessly deadlocked. Earlier in the case, the judge had signaled he would release jurors’ names immediately after a verdict, responding to a petition from news outlets led by Philadelphia Media Network, the parent company of the Inquirer, the Daily News, and Philly.com, and joined by the Post-Gazette and other media outlets.

But Judge O’Neill hesitated after the mistrial ruling, asking prosecutors and the defense team to weigh in. Both District Attorney Kevin R. Steele and lead defense lawyer Brian T. McMonagle opposed the release of the names, saying it could impact a retrial.

Eli Segal, a Pepper Hamilton lawyer representing the media, argued that the names were public records and that any media coverage of deliberations would have marginal impact, “given that the prosecution and the defense have spoken publicly about this case, including evidence that was notheard in court.”

In his ruling, Judge O’Neill said he tried to balance the “rights of the parties to a fair and impartial trial” with the media’s First Amendment rights.

“We applaud Judge O’Neill for taking this important step to uphold our First Amendment right to the names of the jurors,” Stan Wischnowski, executive editor and senior vice president of PMN, said in a statement. “The insights that these jurors can provide are certain to yield a more complete understanding of what went into their respective decisions in this high-profile case.”

Butwhile the judge agreed to release the names — and said any could talk about their own opinions — he barred them from publicly discussing the group deliberations, which he said could unfairly shape the jury of the nexttrial. “Future jurors will be reluctant to speak up or saywhat they think when deliberating if they fear that whatthey say during deliberations will not be kept secret,”he wrote.

Whether the rest of the jurors were remaining silent because they were ordered to do so or wanted to do so wasn’t immediately clear. Even social media clues were scarce. Just one panel member, an alternate, appeared to turn to Facebook, and only to chronicle her relief that the trial was over.

“I’m coming home!!!!” Kristen Williams posted a few minutes before 1 p.m. Saturday, about two hours after Judge O’Neill had declared the mistrial. The post was tagged with a Montgomery County location. About five hours later, Ms. Williams posted again: “Finally back in Pittsburgh! Thank the Lord.”

When a friend asked, she commented: “I was in Philly for the Cosby case … praising God I’m home.”