Jury Reaches Verdict on Three Counts in E-mail Trial – Roundup With Video

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Palin e-mail jury goes home for the day, to resume deliberations Friday – Jim Balloch – knoxnews.com

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Federal court jurors will return Friday to continue deliberations against former University of Tennessee student David C. Kernell, accused of illegally accessing the private e-mail account of 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

The jurors told U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Phillips shortly after 4 p.m. this afternoon they wanted to go home and wanted to resume deliberating Friday morning.

Earlier today, they said they had reached a verdict on three of four charges.

But they also reported they are deadlocked on the first count, a charge of identity theft.

Without asking what their verdict is on the other counts, Phillips sent them back to the jury room to continue deliberating the first count.

In their written communication to the judge this afternoon, the jurors said: “Some of us feel not all jurors are following the jury instruction.”

On its third morning of deliberations, the East Tennessee jury pondering charges against Kernell asked to review a federal law addressing identity theft. That’s the count on which the jurors deadlocked.

After some discussion with lawyers, Phillips decided today to give them a copy of the law – with some sections blacked out that he said are irrelevant to the case.

Formal charges against Kernell, 22, consist of identity theft, wire fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer, and destruction of records to hamper a federal investigation, all of which are felonies.

Only the third count includes a lesser misdemeanor charge as an option for the jurors.

They’ve been deliberating the case since Tuesday morning.

Kernell was 20 and an economics major in September 2008 when, according to federal prosecutors, he broke into Palin’s personal Yahoo! e-mail account by figuring out the answer to her password security question. He then shared the means to access it with others, after which some other people then went on the Internet and also snooped through the account, according to the government.

Palin at the time was the governor of Alaska and had been selected as Arizona Sen. John McCain’s running mate. Kernell had read news accounts of allegations that Palin had been conducting Alaska state business on her personal computer to avoid scrutiny, an allegation Palin denied.

Federal Prosecutors Mark Krotoski and Greg Weddle contend Kernell broke into Palin’s account with the intent to find information that could damage her political campaign, though he found none.

Kernell’s Wade Davies says that his client’s actions were more akin to a “prank” than a crime, and said the most he should be convicted of is a misdemeanor.

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Sarah Palin e-mail breach trial deliberations continue Friday – WBIR.com

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The jury in the David Kernell trial has agreed on a verdict on three of the four counts against Kernell, but they continue to disagree on the question of identity theft.

Kernell faces four felonies in connection with allegedly breaching Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email account when she was a candidate for vice president in September 2008. He was a 20-year-old University of Tennessee student at the time.

The jury returned to the courtroom Thursday afternoon to tell the judge that they had reached a unanimous decision on counts two, three, and four–but what that decision is is not yet known.

“There are some jurors who feel not all the jurors are following jury instructions,” said a note from the jury, read aloud by Judge Thomas Phillips.

Judge Phillips talked to the attorneys on both sides about whether to accept a partial verdict or to have the jury continue deliberating.

Phillips denied a defense motion for a mistrial on count 1.

He told jurors to resume deliberations but explained the option of a partial verdict. In that case, the jury could go ahead and announce its verdict on counts 2,3, and 4 then continue deliberating on count 1. Or the jury could choose to wait to announce verdicts until they have reached unanimous decisions on all four counts.

The jury opted to announce all parts of the verdict together and will continue to deliberate.

The jury wrapped up the Thursday’s deliberations shortly after 4:00 and will return to court Friday morning at 9:00.

Charges, possible sentence

* Count one: identity theft
Maximum 5 years in prison
$250,000 fine
3 years supervised release
* Count two: wire fraud
Maximum 20 years in prison
$250,000 fine
5 years supervised release
* Count three: unlawful computer access
Maximum 5 years in prison
$250,000 fine
3 years supervised release
Lesser included misdemeanor offense on count 3 carries a maximum of 1 year in prison
* Count four: obstruction of justice
Maximum 20 years in prison
$250,000 fine
5 years supervised release

Previous: Kernell jury still deliberating, asking questions

Judge Thomas Phillips is conducting court business during the downtime of jury deliberations.

He was in the middle of a heroin trafficking plea Thursday morning when the jury submitted a question.

Defense attorney Wade Davies and prosecutor Greg Weddle both said they’ve never heard of a jury asking this before.

The jury wanted to see two actual federal statutes listed in count one, element 3. That is the identity theft charge, one of four felonies David Kernell faces in connection with allegedly breaching Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email account when she was a candidate for vice president.

It’s unusual, because before they began deliberating Tuesday morning, the judge spent almost an hour reading the applicable laws, explaining them, and going over specific elements the prosecution must prove.

The jury has a copy of that detailed charge, including the relative laws.

After some disussion among the lawyers and the judge, the jury was given a copy of the federal code they requested.

Deliberations continue at 1:00, after a lunch break. The jury began the day’s deliberations at 9:15 Thursday morning; they first started deliberating on Tuesday.

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