Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Cutts Jurors approaching 24 hour mark

2:45 p.m. The Cutts jurors have had the case for just about 24 hours now .. still no verdict or any indication of when they'll come back. Could be in two minutes .. or it could be another two days.

It's been good to catch up with the other news crews here in Canton today ... they're waiting and waiting .. just like we are at TV3.

Our "verdict plan" right now is for Chris Tye to man the front inside the courtroom .. and I'll be live outside the courthouse ... talking to the anchors before and/or after the verdict comes in. In TV speak, I'm a safety net ... in case there's a major delay, the anchors and I can do Q & A while waiting for the jury forms to come full circle.

If we have a verdict today, I'll anchor the front portion of the 6:30 Akron-Canton Newscast from here in Canton .. and someone else will do the "other news of the day." If the verdict doesn't come by 6:30, I'll do a short liveshot for the Akron news and then turn it over to Vic Gideon to anchor the rest of the show from Akron. It's a lot of "ifs" and "thens" in our planning.

I still keep feeling a parallel to the Prade case ... although that verdict came in with less than 24 hours of deliberations .. and that jury was not sequestered as the Cutts jurors are. Technology has also advanced from 9+ years ago ... allowing today's journalists to keep blogging and providing instant updates.

The courthouse seems remarkably calm and quiet ... hallways, courtrooms, outside, inside ... considering the potential fireworks that could come at any time.

No comments: