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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/15/bill-cosby-trial-jury-deadlocked-deliberations-continue
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| Bill Cosby trial: deadlocked jury told to continue deliberations | Bill Cosby trial: deadlocked jury told to continue deliberations |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The jurors in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial said on Thursday they were deadlocked after more than 30 hours of deliberations, but the trial judge ordered them to resume their discussions. | |
| “We cannot come to a unanimous consensus on any of the counts,” the jury said in a note to Judge Steven O’Neill in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Jurors began discussing the three counts of aggravated indecent assault late on Monday and worked 12-hour days on both Tuesday and Wednesday. | |
| In response, O’Neill gave a standard instruction that the jurors should continue trying to reach a verdict without compromising any of their individual beliefs. | |
| As reporters streamed out of the courtroom, poet and author Jewel Allison – one of the dozens of women who have accused Cosby of assaulting them – burst into tears. Several of the accusers have been in court all week awaiting a verdict, including the woman at the center of the trial, Andrea Constand. | |
| Cosby, the 79-year-old entertainer once beloved for his brand of family-friendly comedy, is accused of drugging and sexually assaulting Constand, then 31, at his home near Philadelphia in 2004. | |
| Constand and other accusers say Cosby, the star of the 1980s hit TV comedy The Cosby Show, often plied them with pills and alcohol before assaulting them, in a series of incidents over four decades. | |
| Constand’s allegations are the only ones to result in criminal charges, with many of the others too old to allow for prosecution. Cosby has denied every claim, saying his encounters with Constand and others were consensual. | |
| A hung jury would be a clear victory for Cosby, who would avoid what could have been years in prison. Prosecutors would have the option of seeking a retrial if the jury cannot reach a verdict. | |
| On hearing of the jury’s note, his lawyers moved for a mistrial. But O’Neill denied that request as premature. | |
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