Juror Illness Delays Mehserle Deliberations

LOS ANGELES (KCBS/AP) -- The jury weighing murder charges against the former BART police officer video taped shooting Oscar Grant to death will not deliberate today because one of them is sick.

The panel of seven men and five women had been scheduled to begin their first full day of deliberations on Tuesday. Jurors deliberated for two hours after closing arguments ended Friday.

Now an alternate juror must be seated since another one of the jurors is leaving on vacation. That decision, approved by the judge, will likely add another woman to the jury, and jurors will have to start their deliberations from scratch.

Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School, said the gender breakdown of the panel could not be used to predict the outcome of deliberations, which start from the beginning on Wednesday.

Women on juries "are quite analytic. Contrary to what the popular sentiment is, they are not just sentimental in how they decide the case. They really look at the evidence, and men do too."

Levenson notes that seating the alternate juror and starting over avoids the perception that the verdict may have been rushed.

Mehserle pleaded not guilty in the shooting of 22-year-old Grant after a fight drew officers to a train station on New Year's Day 2009. Grant was lying face down when he was shot. Mehserle, who is white, claims he mistakenly pulled his gun instead of a Taser.

The case was moved to Los Angeles due to racial tension and extensive media coverage in Alameda County.

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