Conrad Black Jury to Judge: "Our Brains Hurt Thinking About This"

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 11, 2007 3:14PM

It's a picture-perfect summer day: mild, sunny, a medium breeze from the west. We're going to enjoy being out today. The same can't be said for the jury deliberating the Conrad Black trial. They're deadlocked and went so far as to ask Judge Amy St. Eve for advisement yesterday.

Judge St. Eve's advice? Go back and deliberate the case until you aren't deadlocked. Wow! That was downright paternal advice on a par with "finish your vegetables or you won't get any dessert." The Tribune article we linked to for this post wrote that a deadlocked jury wasn't out of the question, given the complexities of the case. Black, the former chair of Hollinger International and controlling shareholder of the Sun-Times, is charged with 13 counts of racketeering and fraud concerning non-compete payments he and his right-hand man David Radler received in the sale of Hollinger's own assets. One of the concerns of the prosecution was that the jury might not be able to understand the intricacies of the case and why Black is being tried. Or maybe they read the great reviews of "Ratatouille" and don't want to wait until it hits the Village Theaters to see it.

If anything, this gave us an excuse to share this magnificently pompous photo of Black, who rescinded his Canadian citizenship to join the British House of Lords as Lord Black of Crossharbour and take photos dressed as father Christmas.

Image courtesy of www.conspiracyplanet.com.