Castroneves defense moves for mistrial
Defense lawyers for Castroneves moved for a mistrial Tuesday after a federal judge clarified his jury instructions on key legal issues during the panel's third day of deliberations.
Prompted by jurors' confusion over complex tax issues, U.S. District Judge Donald Graham provided further explanation of his original jury instruction on ''deferral of income.'' But in court papers, Castroneves' defense lawyers maintained his instruction was such a ''substantial'' change — because it included new language about a ''binding agreement'' — that it was grounds for a mistrial.
Graham did not rule on the defense motion for a mistrial, which came late Tuesday as jurors completed their deliberations. Miami Herald
04/14/09 The third day of jury deliberations in the Helio Castroneves' tax evasion trial ended without a verdict but not without some fireworks as the defense attorneys moved for a mistrial according to SPEEDTV.com.
Much of Tuesday's seven hours were spent with attorneys from both sides attempting to define and agree on three questions posed by the jurors about constructive receipt, deferred money and binding contracts.
U.S. district Judge Donald Graham's clarifications of jury instructions on some key legal issues forced attorneys Roy Black and David Garvin to move for a mistrial.
The defense counsel objected to trying the case by one set of instructions and then, they contend, have inconsistencies or changes with Tuesday's instructions to the 12 jurors.
After giving the government and defense counsel time to try and reach some common ground on answers to those three questions, Graham brought in the jury to try and simplify some very complex legal issues.
They were given a verbal explanation by Graham followed by a written version, which they studied until 4 o'clock when they went home for the day. Depending on the judge's ruling on the mistrial, deliberations are scheduled to resume Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. Full story at SPEEDTV.com