A member of the Bill Cosby sexual assault and drugging jury is speaking out about the Bill Cosby verdict, and it seems as though two jurors in particular were the reason a conviction could not be reached.
In an interview with ABC News, a juror, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 10 of the 12 jurors agreed that Cosby was guilty on the first and second degree felony accounts, and only one of the jurors thought he was guilty on the second count. But two other jurors weren’t budging with finding Cosby guilty.
The juror also spoke out about the climate in the small deliberation room, and said tension was at an all time high.
“People couldn’t even pace,” the juror said. “They were just literally walking in circles where they were standing because they were losing their minds. People would just start crying out of nowhere, we wouldn’t even be talking about [the case] — and people would just start crying.”
“I think he broke his pinky knuckle,” the juror said, about a fellow juror so upset he decided to punch a wall.
“If we kept going, there was definitely going to be a fight. They had five sheriff’s deputies at the door and they could hear us and they kept coming in because they thought we were already fighting.”
Previously at the end of the trial, Judge Steven O’Neill advised the jurors not to speak about the deliberations, but on Tuesday he ordered the public release of the jurors’ names, granting a request by media organizations.
The anonymous juror stated that although he believed Cosby didn’t act with premeditation, he did take advantage of Andrea Constand’s drugged state in 2004, which set off a civil suit in 2005 and the recent criminal trial.
“I think that he gave [the pills] to her, and then later when he saw what was up, maybe he figured, ‘Maybe I’ll do something’,” the juror stated.
After 52 hours of jury deliberations, the judge declared a mistrial.
