Day Five of the jury's deliberations in the Raj Rajaratnam insider trading trial ended today with no verdict, and the jury headed home for the weekend. According to reporter Courtney Comstock, who has been camped out at the courtroom for five days, the extended deliberations have reportedly left once-confident prosecutors looking "visibly worried" while Rajaratnam's defense team is starting to look "positively giddy." But does the fact that the jury failed to reach a quick verdict mean anything? Probably not.
As the Chicago Times reports today, many recent high-profile securities fraud cases have seen jury deliberations longer than the five days in the Rajaratnam trial that still resulted in convictions. For example:
- Tyco International CEO Dennis Kozlowski and CFO Mark Swartz--jurors convicted both men after 11 days of deliberations.
- WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers--convicted of securities fraud after eight days of deliberations.
- Enron's Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling--convicted after six days of deliberations.
On the other hand, jury deliberations in the trial of former HealthSouth Corp CEO went on for 21 days, and he was acquitted.
Some observers believe that the days of deliberation in the Rajaratnam trial are a sign of a good and thoughtful jury. While it may not be much comfort to the squirming prosecutors, Robert Weisberg, a law professor at Stanford University, says that "very good juries, in complicated cases, take time." We shall see, perhaps as early as next week.