At Maxwell trial for sex trafficking, the jury once again pushes back its verdict – teller report

AFP, published on Wednesday, December 29, 2021 at 5:36 p.m.

The jury of the New York court, where the former British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell is appearing for sex trafficking, once again postponed its verdict on Wednesday despite pressure from the judge who fears that the Covid-19 epidemic will strike the parties to the trial.

The six women and six men, who have failed for a week to agree unanimously on the guilt or innocence of Ms Maxwell, again asked to reread the transcripts of several witnesses at the trial which began on November 29. .

Notably the testimony of a court psychologist, Elizabeth Loftus, focused on the supposedly “truncated” memories of victims of sexual violence committed a quarter of a century ago.

Ghislaine Maxwell, who turned 60 on Christmas Day, has been in prison in New York since her arrest in the summer of 2020, prosecuted among other things for providing her former companion, the American financier Jeffrey Epstein, exploited underage girls sexually between the years 1994 and 2004.

Epstein committed suicide in New York City jail in August 2019, depriving his victims of a sex crimes trial.

Faced with the slowness of the deliberations, the judge of the Manhattan federal court, Alison Nathan, was worried Tuesday about the “astronomical peak” of contamination with the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in New York. She threatened the 12 jurors to bring them back on the weekend and New Years weekend if they don’t find a verdict beforehand.

Justice is alarmed by a “significant delay” for the conclusion of the trial if ever one of the jurors, lawyers or judges falls ill or is a contact case subject to quarantine.

“In saying this, of course, I do not want to put pressure on you. You must take all the time necessary,” however, assured Judge Nathan on Wednesday.

For her part, the accused appeared relaxed, as since the start of her trial, conversing with her lawyers and a journalist, dressed in a burgundy sweater and black pants to match her mask.

For a week, speculations have been rife in the press: in particular on the fact that, according to the criminal procedure in the United States, if the deliberations drag on, it is the sign of a deep disagreement between the jurors and therefore the hope for the defense that the debates resume from the beginning.

Holding a triple British, French and American nationality, Ghislaine Maxwell risks decades in prison if she is found guilty of the six crimes attributed to her, all in connection with sexual violence committed by Jeffrey Epstein on the four victims , minors at the material time, and who testified during the trial.

The daughter of British newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell (died 1991) pleads not guilty.