Although I am a firm believer in allowing jurors to both take notes and ask questions during trial, the article below and the recent blog post on juror notes illustrate some of the problems that can arise with juror note taking and questions.
Two Convicted in Slayings Returned to Court
The 2006 trial of Adan Canela and Policarpio Espinoza was one of the longest in Baltimore history - stretching two months and including 21 days of testimony about the near-beheadings of three of their young relatives.
The jury passed 31 notes to the judge before finding the men guilty.
But yesterday, attorneys for Canela and Espinoza were back in court for an unusual proceeding that could get their clients a new trial.
They allege that retired Circuit Judge David B. Mitchell never shared some of those jury notes with defense attorneys. Now, on order from the state's second-highest court, retired Howard County Circuit Judge Dennis M. Sweeney is conducting a hearing to find out if those allegations are true.
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