As a measure of how murky the financial dealings of former State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno were, the jury on his corruption trial says they’ve reached a verdict on two of the counts so far, but are deadlocked on the other six. They sent a note to Judge Gary Sharpe asking for help. The judge urged them to press on, but was probably disheartened by what they asked earlier in the day. Not only are they stymied by the murkiness of Bruno’s mixture of politics and business interests, now they’re stymied by the legal process itself! “May we have some further clarification,” they asked, “about ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ versus ‘beyond a shadow of a doubt’?” Those are some fine defense lawyers Bruno’s got.
Jury Said to Reach Partial Verdict in Bruno Corruption Case [City Room/NYT]
