WILMINGTON, DEL. - The third jury to decide the fate of accused murderer Irina Malinovskaya has now deliberated longer than both past juries, neither of which was able to reach a verdict.
Malinovskaya allegedly bludgeoned to death her ex-lover's girlfriend in December 2004.
Since then, she has been retried twice for the murder. Her first trial ended with an 11-to-1 vote for acquittal. The second concluded in a jury deadlock of 6 to 6.
Deliberations lasted only two days before the judge declared a mistrial in her first trial. In the second, the judge pushed jurors to continue deliberating when they said they had deadlocked after three days, but two more days of discussion resulted in yet another mistrial.
This time around, the jury hasn't said a word for five days. On Friday, however, deliberations were delayed for four hours when members of the jury saw documents that contained information from the previous trials, which lawyers have tried to keep secret to preserve impartiality.
"It's a complicated case with a lot of tapes," Malinovskaya's defense attorney Eugene Maurer said of the lengthy deliberations. "They seem like a conscientious jury."
Maurer would not speculate on the possibility of another mistrial or a potential fourth trial.
"You just don't know," he said.
Former defense attorney Mary Burnell, however, predicted another hung jury earlier this week. She said the longer the deliberations, the more likely there will be a mistrial.
The sixth day of deliberations will begin tomorrow morning.
