The jury in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial declared Thursday that it was deadlocked after
The jury in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial declared Thursday that it was deadlocked after 30 hours of deliberations, but a judge ordered the panel to keep trying to reach a unanimous decision.
Before the impasse, the sequestered jury of seven men and five women had paused deliberations six times to revisit testimony or ask for clarity on the phrasing of one of the charges. Cosby is charged with sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home in suburban Philadelphia in 2004.
Here’s what they asked to be reread or explained:
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MONDAY
The full context of the portion of Cosby’s decade-old testimony in which he said he told Constand the pills he gave her, before their 2004 sexual encounter, were « friends. »
More than a dozen excerpts from Cosby’s deposition, including the « friends » comment and his acknowledgment that he’d gone « somewhere between permission and rejection » during a previous encounter with Constand.
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TUESDAY
The meaning of the phrase « without her knowledge » in one of the three counts against him. Judge Steven O’Neill told the jury he could not provide additional information.
Testimony from the Canadian officer who took the accuser’s first police statement, about a year after the sexual encounter.
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WEDNESDAY
The portion of Constand’s seven hours of trial testimony during which she talked about the night she says Cosby drugged and sexually violated her.
A 2005 police interview during which Cosby acknowledged giving her pills and fondling her, along with related testimony from the suburban Philadelphia detective who read it into the record.
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THURSDAY
The jury tells the judge that it « cannot come to a unanimous consensus on any of the counts. » O’Neill reads what’s known as a « dynamite » charge to remind them of their duty to try to find consensus, and he tells them to keep trying.
