Judge Manning: Cosby jurors didn’t want to talk after trial
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
When the bus transporting the members of the jury in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial arrived from Montgomery County on the other side of the state early Saturday evening, Allegheny County Common Pleas President Judge Jeffrey A. Manning was on hand to thank them and send them off with some final instructions.
He got a distinct impression about where they stood on publicly discussing the experience.
“They all indicated they didn’t want to talk. They had no interest,” Judge Manning said Wednesday evening as local and national reporters fanned across Allegheny County in searchof people who served on the jury in the sexual assault trial of entertainer Bill Cosby.
The judge in the case had kept those names sealed during the trial and didn’t release them after he declared a mistrial when the deadlocked jury couldn’t reach a verdict after 52 hours of deliberations. A retrial is planned for sometime in the next 120 days.
Judge Steven O’Neill dismissed the jury Saturday morning. He thanked the jurors and cautioned them that the high-profile trial would generate intense public interest in them and in the proceedings. He issued standard jury instructions that they “not disclose anything that was said or done in the jury room.”
“Jurors shall not disclose arguments or comments made, or votes cast, by fellow jurors during deliberations,” he said.
Judge O’Neill had resisted publicizing the jurors’ names, but Pennsylvania law allows their release. Multiple media outlets, including the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, filed a motion to release the names, and the judge did so Wednesday after contacting each juror again and reiterating his instructions.
Judge Manning said such rules “protect the process itself.”
“I told them when they arrived back here on the bus. They were released from jury duty, and they had a First Amendment right to speak to whomever they choose as long as they are not violating the confidentiality of jury deliberations. They can follow their own conscience,” he said. “They also have a right to not speak.”
Members of the media, including the Post-Gazette, were out in force Wednesday afternoon in attempts to contact the jurors to see if any of them were willing to discuss the experience.
“The jury deliberations are confidential, but they may express their own opinions, if they choose,” Judge Manning said. “They may make other comments, such as how they viewedthe evidence. But jurors do not discuss the confidential deliberations. That’s been a rule of court for ages, and it applies to all cases.”
A common point of interest is the deadlocked vote count. Judge Manning said that while the votes for and against Mr. Cosby’s acquittal might become public, the information might not reflect the entire process that occurred in the jury room.
Judge Manning said it would not surprise him if the jurors refused to comment.
“When they were released to go home with their families on Saturday, not one of them indicated any desire whatsoever to speak to anyone,” he said.
Kevin Steele, the prosecutor in the case, had opposed the release of the jurors’ names, arguing in court Monday that releasing them would subject them to undue publicity and have a “chilling effect” on finding jurors for a second trial.
Judge Manning declined to comment on whether another jury could be found.
“In a case such as this, you attempt to find jurors who are fair and impartial,” he said. “You ask if they know about the case, read or heard about it, and can they set that aside and decide solely on the evidence presented in the court.”