ATLANTA — Jurors in the trial of Clayton County sheriff Victor Hill started deliberations over again Tuesday after a juror was released and replaced with an alternate. But the jury drama didn’t end there.
The jury foreperson revealed one of the jurors said the sheriff is “above the law” and claimed he wasn’t cooperating with other jurors. He’s still on the jury.
Two complaints filed by the foreperson -- about four hours apart Tuesday -- indicate one particular juror is preventing other jurors from rendering unanimous verdicts against the suspended Clayton County sheriff.
The foreperson of the federal jury sent a note to U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross complaining the one of the jurors
- would not acknowledge the law;
- didn’t understand the court’s instructions;
- appears to show the beginning of cognitive impairment;
- and claimed that the US president and the sheriff are above the law.
Hill is accused of violating the constitutional rights of seven Clayton County jail inmates by forcing them into restraint chairs for hours at a time with little provocation. Hill told the jury he did it to maintain order in the jail.
In court, the juror – a white man who appeared to be in his 60s or older -- denied that he was ignoring or disregarding the law. “I’ve had (jurors) screaming at me. I’ve had people raising their voices, describing me as inarticulate or crazy…. But I try to measure the consequences of every word I use,” he told Ross.
To convict Hill, all 12 jurors would need to agree unanimously.
"It's compare and contrast. Jurors aren’t robots. They’re human beings. They come in with their own preconceived notions and prejudices and biases about who’s credible and who's not and what credible looks like," former DeKalb County district attorney Robert James told 11Alive on Monday.
Later in the afternoon, the jury foreperson sharpened her complaints about the holdout juror in a note to the judge. Defense attorney Drew Findling told the judge it appeared 11 jurors were "bullying" a holdout juror.
After questioning the juror, Hill’s defense team urged Judge Ross to let him stay on the jury. Ross agreed to let him stay.
Monday, the judge read an "Allen Charge" to the jury, which is delivered to juries that say they are unable to render unanimous verdicts. It encourages them to keep trying, to prevent the government from convening the case again with another jury. Tuesday, Judge Ross told the court that she's likely to deliver another Allen Charge on Wednesday.
Findling has repeatedly made motions for a mistrial in the case.
The original jury Monday told Ross that they'd come up with unanimous verdicts on two of the seven counts. Those proceedings got rebooted, however, after one of the jurors was substituted for an alternate juror Tuesday.