Nov 25, 2009 6:00 am US/Eastern
Gotti Jury Signals Deadlock Yet Again
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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A New York jury which has been considering racketeering charges against John "Junior" Gotti for more than a week has told a judge it's unable to agree on a verdict.
AP
Jurors at the racketeering trial of John "Junior" Gotti say they are deadlocked but the judge has asked them to resume trying to reach an unanimous verdict.
The jurors notified federal Judge Kevin Castel on Tuesday afternoon that they could not reach a verdict. He read them a so-called Allen charge, telling them to try again because no future jury would be in better position to decide the case.
Last Thursday, jurors also said they were deadlocked.
Prosecutors say Gotti, son of the late infamous mob boss, ordered or participated in several brutal attacks since the 1980s, including several murders.
Attorneys for Gotti say he quit the Mafia in 1999 and never participated in murders.
Gotti's three previous trials ended in hung juries.
Prosecutors allege 45-year-old Gotti, son of the late infamous mob boss, orchestrated a kidnapping and attempted murder plot against Guardian Angels anti-crime group founder Curtis Sliwa as well as a series of gangland murders dating to the 1980s.
Attorneys for Gotti claimed he quit the Mafia in 1999 and that lying turncoat mobsters were framing him to try to get leniency in their own cases.
CBS 2 asked Gotti's lawyer, Charles Carnesi, how he and Gotti were "reading" the jury following last week's deadlock.
"Once they came out with the other note and that was gonna take them some time, then I think the judge made the right call to send them home," said Carnesi. "It tells me that they're asking questions, they're doing their job."
Gotti's three previous trials ended in hung juries.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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