02/24/09
 Judge Mark Kent Ellis did not want to, but was forced to declare a mistrial, as criminal juries by law must [except military courts] have exactly and only twelve jurors. The jury returned a verdict of guilty after only 45 minutes of deliberation, but it didn't matter much because their decision was nullified by the mistake. Nobody took the endeavor it seems to actually take a look around and count how many jurors were on board. It was taken for granted that there was an automatic twelve jurors present.
According to federal law, a 13th juror is not allowed to deliberate in a criminal proceeding because the thirteenth juror would be considered outside influence even if that person sat through and heard the entire testimony. ''In 23 years I’ve never seen anything like this, but there’s no way to un-ring that bell," said the judge. He smacked the blame squarely on a substitute bailiff, whose name he didn’t know, as his regular bailiff at the time fell ill. ''I told him I never want to see him in my courtroom again,'' commented Ellis.
In fact, it did turn out that the bailiff allowed a dismissed alternate juror on the bench when he shouldn't have, hence the extra juror. The jury, prosecuting team, judge, some members of the surrounding community, and especially family and friends of Roseann all seemed rather distressed by the given circumstance, yet no one appeared more upset than the upbraided bailiff who took deep blame for the blunder. He was scolded and greatly ostracized by the judge as a consequence.
However, he wasn't the only one wrong, since none of the prosecutors, none of the defense counsel nor the judge himself ever realized the surplus of jurors sitting in the box or when they all left together to deliberate. In the meantime, Charles Mapps new trial is scheduled for May 2009. He has confessed to the killing, but his defense is it was part of a suicide pact.
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