Jury in PCA Criminal Trial Continues Deliberations Today
By Dan Flynn on September 19, 2014
The jury in Albany, GA, ended its first full day of deliberations on Thursday without reaching a verdict in the trial of three former Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) executives who face a total of 111 federal felony charges. The jury returns today to continue its work of deciding whether former PCA owner Stewart Parnell, his peanut broker brother Michael, and Mary Wilkerson, PCA's former quality control manager at its now-shuttered plant in Blakely, GA, are guilty or not guilty of charges stemming from a Salmonella outbreak that began almost six years ago. At 1:44 p.m. last Friday, the jury was excused to pick a foreman. After completing that assignment, jury members were told they would have to suspend deliberations from Sept. 15-17 due to court and attorney scheduling conflicts. While they could have worked over this past weekend, they opted to take the five-day break. They then returned on Thursday, deliberated for the full day, and went home without reaching a verdict. Jurors will be back this morning, working from a 71-page verdict form. Defense closing arguments came last Friday with Stewart Parnell's attorney, Thomas J. Bondurant Jr., taking one hour and Michael Parnell's attorney, Ed Tolley, and Wilkerson's attorney, Thomas Ledford, each taking about a half-hour. The day before, Alan Dasher, assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, took from 11 a.m to 4 p.m., with a couple of breaks, for the government's closing arguments. In addition to the verdict form, the jury is working with the exhibits and a reduced copy of the indictment against the trio. Attorneys were called into court at 9 a.m Thursday, but later allowed to return to their hotel rooms after giving clerks their mobile numbers for use when the jury does return.
Tags: closing arguments, jury deliberations, PCA trial, Peanut Corporation of America