The jury has returned to the Bristol Superior Court for the third full day of deliberations in the first Aaron Hernandez murder case. Per multiple reports, they’ll go only until 1:00 p.m. ET -- unless they are close to a verdict.
It’s unclear why they’ll deliberate for only half of a day. For some jurors, the impending arrival of a weekend can nudge them toward hammering out their differences and reaching a unanimous conclusion. For that reason, the placement of a 1:00 p.m. ET deadline could be aimed at guarding against a sudden, late-afternoon consensus arising from a desire to just be done with it.
Regardless, the parties apparently realize a Friday verdict is possible. Hernandez’s fiancée, Shayanna Jenkins, is at the courthouse.
The longer the deliberations take, the greater the possibility of a hung jury. Typically, that process commences with the jury sending the judge a note posing the question of what happens if they can’t reach a unanimous verdict. At that point, Judge E. Susan Garsh possibly will then make what’s known as an “Allen charge,” derived from an 1896 U.S. Supreme Court that authorized the judge to explain that, if they can’t reach a verdict, the case may have to be tried again from scratch. The goal at that point is to get the folks in the minority to reconsider their positions and to potentially relent to the majority.
The judge won’t say or do anything until the jury indicates difficulty in reaching a verdict. Given the number of days the trial consumed and the sheer volume of evidence introduced, it’s possible that the real work won’t begin until next week.
Then again, anything is possible when it comes to the inner workings of a jury, the ultimate American sausage machine of justice.
UPDATE 10:37 a.m. ET: Via Lindsay Adler of BuzzFeedNews, the jurors requested the 1:00 p.m. ET dismissal.