Local federal court uber-blogger (and sometimes cheesecake purveyor) David Marcus points out that the lawyers in the Padilla trial have something to worry about over July 4th:
Southern District of Florida Blog: Dress up day…: In the Jose Padilla trial, jurors showed up today all dressed up. Row one in red. Row two in white. And row three in blue. I'm not kidding.
And this isn't the first time the jury has dressed up. A week back, all of the jurors (save one) wore black.
So what do you make of this. On the one hand, the jury might just be having some fun. This is a long trial and it's not a one hour Law and Order show. It's boring.
Perhaps the jury is unified, which might be a poor sign for the defense. If everyone is thinking the same way at such an early stage, defense lawyers get nervous. Or the prosecution might be concerned because this is obviously a happy jury. Happy juries during a terrorism trial might not be good.
The trial is in recess until next Monday so the lawyers will have plenty of time to make themselves crazy over what all this means.
Meanwhile, the government has put on Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, its most effective expert witness on terrorism — and apparently the Judge has allowed him to avoid testifying about some of his sources and methods, which is slightly odd. He's also been admonished giving an interview during the trial. Which is not Dr. Gunaratna's first experience of official criticism: in 2003 the CIA criticized his accuracy.
I’ve seen speculation that Judge Cooke didn’t like getting reversed on appeal early on, when she might have thrown out the whole Padilla aspect of this charade, and has essentially given up on fairness. Don’t know enough to know whether this is true, but it fits the reported facts so far.