Denis Collins. a juror in the perjury trial of former White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, talks to the press regarding the verdict in the trial, Tuesday, March 6, 2007, outside federal court in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Posted on 03/06/2007 6:35:50 PM PST by SkyPilot
WASHINGTON - Jurors in the Libby trial turned their deliberation room into one big visual aid, plastering the walls with dozens of poster-size summaries of witness testimony.
Denis Collins. a juror in the perjury trial of former White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, talks to the press regarding the verdict in the trial, Tuesday, March 6, 2007, outside federal court in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
They pushed two long tables together, pored over testimony, reviewed their notes and spent a week just laying out the evidence.
But in the end, it came down to credibility and they simply did not believe the former White House aide's story.
"There were good managerial type people on this jury who took everything apart and put it in the right place," juror Denis Collins said after he and his colleagues convicted I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI. "After that, it wasn't a matter of opinion. It was just there."
Prosecutors said Libby lied about how he learned the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame and whom he told. Libby said he told investigators his best recollection of his conversations, but, in the heat of his demanding work schedule, forgot some details or made errors.
Libby's lawyers urged jurors not to convict a man for being forgetful and jurors took that to heart. They did not immediately vote in the jury room, opting to assess the evidence before taking a poll
"It was a very tough question to get through, to try to figure out whether he could have forgotten," juror Jeff Comer said. "Everyone has their moments of forgetfulness."
Libby testified that he learned Plame's identity from Cheney, forgot it, then learned it again a month later from NBC reporter Tim Russert. Prosecutors say that was a convenient story crafted to conceal the fact that Libby discussed official government information.
"There was no smoking gun," Comer said.
Instead, jurors relied on the testimony of several government officials and journalists who said they discussed Plame with Libby. Jurors made a list of nine people who talked to Libby about Plame, and Collins remembered one juror making an observation.
"If I'm told something once, I'm likely to forget it," Collins recalled the juror saying. "If I'm told it many times, I'm less likely to forget it. If I myself tell it to someone else, I'm even less likely to forget it."
Collins said he was intrigued when defense lawyer Theodore Wells raised the idea the Libby was being made a scapegoat for White House political strategist Karl Rove.
"There was a tremendous amount of sympathy for Mr. Libby on the jury. It was said a number of times, 'What are we doing with this guy here? Where's Rove? Where are these other guys?'" Collins said. "I'm not saying we didn't think Mr. Libby was guilty of the things we found him guilty of. It seemed like he was, as Mr. Wells put it, he was the fall guy."
Comer said he can only recall that idea coming up once.
"For me, I really needed to focus on the charge in front of us," Comer said. "There was this background noise, but it played almost no role for me."
During opening statements, Wells told jurors the only way he would lose the case was if they allowed their feelings about the Iraq war and the Bush administration to influence their decision. But Collins said neither topic came up.
"The people who led us were strict taskmasters. Let's stick to the facts," Collins said. "This was not a case about, 'Who can we punish for going into Iraq?' We didn't go there. This wasn't about the war."
"Ahh ain't no waaays taard. Ah cuhm too fur!"
Methinks he doth protest too much.
What a prick.
ROFLMAO!!! What a cluster****!
I thought none of them read the news. How did they know about Rove? How did they know about the war? Why was that other juror dismissed?
Maybe he was "Denise Collins" in a former life.Denis is strange way to spell "Dennis"!
Idiot yuppies. I mean this doesn't leave a whole hell of a lot in the way of reasons to go on wanting to live in the same country as these bastards and I get the distinct impression we might see the United States splitting up in our lifetimes. I don't really want anything to do with these people.
I'm still wondering how a retired Washington Post reporter stayed on that jury......
Just read on JOM, that this Denis guy was on Larry King Live tonight and said he is going to write about it. Is it too late for jury nullification? Does this guy personally woodward and russert, and yet was allowed on the jury? He clearly influenced the other jurors, isn't this highly irregular?
Russert should be on trial -- he filed a false affidavit and lied on the stand..yet the great Judge Ito (oops, I mean Walton) REFUSED to allow the defense team to impeach Russert.
NBC still employs a liar; NBC lawyers stated in the course of events, that Mitchell lied on CNBC when she said "everybody knew" and told the truth when she said on IMUS, "I must have been drunk when I said that". This is NBC....a liar and a drunk, and the jury believed them?????
Shock, stun, disgust. If you ever are asked to go before a grand jury or talk to the FBI, take the 5th, or say "I don't recall". This case was an atrocity.
What a crime this whole case was. I'm sickened.
Comer said he can only recall that idea coming up once.
Faulty recollection can get you decades in jail.
did you watch Hannity & Colmes tonight - the panel, including novak, david boies, and laura ingraham - took this verdict apart nicely.
No there were no preconceived notions there. If that does not cause a retrial nothing will. This guy is admitting that he and at least some of the other jurors were wanting to get Rove or 'those other guys'. They had an adgenda.
"Look, this wasn't about the war in Iraq, or that Republicans are anti-Choice, or that Bush is Hitler, or that Rove needs to be arrested, or that Christians make gay men feel guilty, or anthing like that! We just stuck with the facts!"
and the woman who was tossed off - that we assumed was a liberal - she refused to wear that valentine's day shirt - I'd like the appelate division to hear from her.
I don't believe these people. It's just another guy other than a democrap going to jail. That's all the democraps do when they are in power especially because of the Clintons is to send people who have been railroaded to jail, while none of them go.
Why the heck is that?
Pretty revealing about his mindset. He believes someone should be punished for going into Iraq.
How in the world did this ex-WAPO reporter who was Russerts neighbor who wrote a book on spying, get/stay on this jury??
....lol....I think she was just anti-social....
"...I get the distinct impression we might see the United States splitting up in our lifetimes. I don't really want anything to do with these people."
I completely agree.
However, until the '60 generation dies off, we will continue to be ever more divided and at each others' throats.
No, I was baking cookies....seriously. When mad, smoke or eat!
I will have to catch the rerun.
I heard a report a short while ago that this guy used to work with Woodward and was a neighbor of Russerts
NOT GUILTY!
"What a crime this whole case was. I'm sickened".
Of all the real crimes committed in our government, this is what gets prosecuted. Sickened indeed.
This is not the same Denis Collins who is a journalist who writes for the Washington Post, the San Jose Mercury News, and the Miami Herald, is it?
Didn't they learn about Rove through testimony given during the trial?
Couldn't of described him better!
bump
I agree, but I hope you're not suggesting that we would be the ones to leave.
Free SCOOTER.
The question becomes: Does "W" have the cahoneys to pardon Liddy?
While I wish he did, I do not predict it.
How the White House can be aggressive in Iraq/Afghanistan and yet be unwilling to fight against liberal stupidity and judicial and political intimidation at home remains a profound mystery....
Better get used to seeing these assholes all over the media for the next 21 - some odd months. They'll be appearing everywhere, hawking books, giving "expert legal analysis" and crying on Oprah about how they wish they could have done more to clear out the nest of Bush Regime vipers. They'll speak at antiwar rallies, appear at cocktail parties with Joe Wilson and Cindy Sheehan, and maybe even get luxury box seats at the democrat convention next to Jimmah Carter. Maybe they can form a traveling circus like the 9/11 Commission did and the Iraq Study Group will, and go around nagging away about why Rove's still not indicted, why Fitzgerald still hasn't run Cheney out of office, and why is it taking so long for the Dims to impeach Bushitler, anyway?
The jury that won't go away - feh, more like the turd that just won't drop into the bowl.
He worked for the Post. Don't know about the others.
I would expect Scooter does not want a pardon at this point; after a new trial (if one is granted) or an appeals, then it will be time to seek a pardon.
Very strange the Defense didn't challenge or cut him.
We would have to go back to the early days of FDL to find out about this; I would expect that Team Libby did challenge but was overruled by the illustrious Judge Walton.
Why did Libby's lawyer even let him on the jury. It sounds like he was leading the whole lot of them so he could get the material for a book.
I hope if he has an article in the Post this week they will see it as grounds for a re-trial.
This guy was one grandstanding jackass.
It's my understanding that the next step would be to ask the same judge for a new trial, but he'll refuse because he was obviously biased. The next thing would be an appeal but I think that takes about a year. I'm also lead to believe that Libby's attorney will catch everything the jury says to the press, etc. and be able to use that for an appeal.....if I've got all this straight.
I'm still gobsmacked by this.
Here is the Amazon description of his book.
Book Description
Everyone, at some time in his or her life, fantasizes about being a spy--James Bond, Mata Hari, George Smiley, Maxwell Smart. At the new International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., more than a million visitors have stepped into the secret history of history--and have learned what it is really like to live undercover. This distinctive and fascinating book at once distills and expands upon that experience, with inside information on how spies do their jobs, interviews with operatives, and hundreds of photographs and descriptions of tools of the trade.
Biographies of legendary spies and how they completed their special operations are included, along with timelines showing the developments of bugs, surveillance tools, weapons, and disguises. Letters, maps, examples of disguises, dead drops, and rare photos make spies and their operations from 2000 BC to the present live and breathe on every page.
About the Author
Denis Collins is a journalist who writes for the Washington Post, the San Jose Mercury News, and the Miami Herald. He lives in Washington, DC.
Wonder how many interviews by the Plame dame are at the Spy Museum??
http://www.amazon.com/SPYING-Secret-History-Denis-Collins/dp/1579123953
If it was not possible to forget, then why did they need all those post it pads?
Apparently, to build things.
They aimed for the White House and got Martha Stewart.
During opening statements, Wells told jurors the only way he would lose the case was if they allowed their feelings about the Iraq war and the Bush administration to influence their decision. But Collins said neither topic came up.
"The people who led us were strict taskmasters. Let's stick to the facts," Collins said. "This was not a case about, 'Who can we punish for going into Iraq?' We didn't go there. This wasn't about the war."
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Anybody else find it interesting that "this topic only came up once" and that didn't factor in the judgement. The fact that it came up at all is reason to doubt their intentions.
What was the question?? Sorry, couldn't resist! LOLLOL
The turd in this picture didn't have an agenda? He wanted Rove and other "higher ups". So much for an impartial jury.
All these jurors are going to have to get used to being thought of my many as corrupt and easily corrupted.
She played her part in distracting folks from this Collins character.
It was all about writing a book on the trial. That's what took them so long. Kind of like the idiot judge in Florida on the ANS case....auditioning for a tV show.
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