Tyco---Alan (slow)
>> jurors weighing charges against former tyco executives dennis kozlowski and mark schwartz have ended their fifth day of deliberations. no verdict, as we said. alan dodd frank has been down at the state courthouse awaiting the decision for days now and joins us now with the latest on the day’s action. alan?
>> matt, new york state supreme court justice told jury at the end of the day they look very tireds, they should cease deliberations and go home. but before they left, they sent out one more note. this, in fact, is the 22nd note they have send out during their five days of deliberations and i think you have a glimpse of it and you can see―you can’t really read the writing, but it says dear judge, we the jury request―and what they are requesting is an extensive readback of testimony given by mark schwartz during his nine days on the witness stand about three bonus he received in connection with tyco acquisitions. now they also want to hear the cross-examination of schwartz. he had testified that these bonuses were approved by the compensation committee, not by the board of directors. the compensation committee was lead by a director who is now dead and was not able, obviously, to testify. and the prosecution says that is story is made up. and they want to see the cross-examination of schwartz. they want to hear what the assistant district attorney asked him and schwartz’s explanation about how these might have been early compensation for his annual bonuses, that they were paid out in advance of what he would have normally received at the end of a year. now obviously this means that the jury is going to be at it for at least another half a day tomorrow, matt.
>> alan, two dozen notes in five days of deliberations. i don’t know how that compares to, say, the martha stewart trial. of course, only one―it was two defendants there. what legal observers say that means, that is a lot of inquirieses from the panel, is it not?
>> it is. but the big difference―there are two difference here. one, this trial went on for almost six months. two, unlike the martha stewart trial, mark schwartz took the witness stand and he was on for nine days and he did the talk essentially for himself and for dennis kozlowski who did not take the stand. schwartz was the only witness for the defense, while there were 48 witnesses for the prosecution and more than 700 exhibits. so, it is somewhat understandable, according to the lawyers in the courtroom, that they would take a long time trying to go through this. plus, this ises a 32-count indictment unlike the martha stewart trial where there are only eight counts ultimately to consider four against each defendant. here there are 24 counts against each defendant.
>> anytime there is a note, everyone in the press will go scrambling, thinking this could be the verdict?
>> well, that’s true, although we don’t know whether this is for certain, but we’re told because this indictment is so long the judge may have the courtroom doorslocked so we can’t leave.
>> you maybe should take that judge’s advice yourself. you look like you’ve had a long full day down there. thank you for one last day here for us. appreciate it alan dodd frank at the courthouse in lower manhattan. time for a check on today’s world and national news stories. nicole joins us with the latest.
