Outside the Beltway

Scooter Libby Judge Responds to Jury’s Questions

James Joyner · Monday, March 5, 2007 · 1 comment

The Scooter Libby jury is entering Week 3 of deliberations with some interesting questions for Judge Walton. Most notably, they’ve asked, “We would like clarification of the term ‘reasonable doubt.’ Specifically, is it necessary for the Government to present evidence that it is not humanly possible for someone not to recall an event in order to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Jerralyn Merritt has Walton’s response in PDF format. Basically, he tells them to go re-read the instructions he already gave them. Marcy Wheeler provides a blow-by-blow of the wrangling over that.

I can’t figure out if the jury is just generally confused about what the “reasonable” part of “reasonable doubt” means–which ain’t good news for Libby–or if they’re trying to come up with some sort of compromise among themselves.