PROVIDENCE JOURNAL's Peter Lord Reports on Day One Of RI Lead Paint Jury Deliberations

Yesterday, February 14th was the first full day of jury deliberations in the Rhode Island (RI) lead paint trial.  On Monday the jury had been given instructions by Judge Michael Silverstein and Juror 241, third seat had been selected by the Judge as foreperson.  But because of the lateness of the hour (4:20 PM) and because the five binders of evidence hadn't been transported to the jury room, deliberations didn't actually begin until the next day, that is, Tuesday.

I was not in Court Room 11 on Tuesday.  In his coverage in THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, published today, journalist Peter Lord reports that the jury did have two questions on Tuesday. 

One was, says Mr. Lord, "if testimony from any of the trial's witnesses would be available for review if needed."  Judge Silverstein replied that he didn't want to have a repetition of the testimony that was delivered during the trial.  However, if the jury had particular questions about a specific piece of testimony, the court would provide it.

The second question was, Mr. Lord reports, if the jury could leave one-half hour early because they were tired.  They normally leave at 4:30 PM/

Today, a third question was asked by the jury.  They asked Judge Silverstein to clarify the concept of "unreasonable interference with the right common to the general public."  That concept is part of the definition of public nuisance, which is the focus of this trial.  Judge Silverstein provided them with what he had said about this in court, during instructions, last Monday. (To review that, please retrieve blog postings from Monday, February 13th).

The previous trial had ended in a hung jury.