Jurors at Geuri Lugo's drug trafficking trial may not have gotten one of the cigarette breaks they requested, but that doesn't mean the guilty verdict should go up in smoke, the state Appeals Court has ruled. Lugo was convicted of trafficking in heroin and cocaine. He appealed, saying the judge's denial of the jury's request for a smoke break had contributed to a quick or compromised verdict.Too bad, so sad.
The Appeals Court on Monday rejected Lugo's appeal, saying it was within Judge Richard F. Connon's discretion to deny the request. It was during the first day of deliberations at Lugo's April 2003 trial that jurors sent a note with three questions, including a request to take a break outside to smoke.
The other two questions were reported to be, 1. "Where are the WMDs?", and 2. "Why do they hate us?"
The judge denied the request, saying it was problematic to suspend deliberations and send court officers to stay with the jurors outside as they smoked. He also noted that jurors had just returned from lunch 30 minutes earlier and were scheduled to go home an hour later.
No smokes for you!
"Lugo points to nothing other than the denial of the cigarette break; he does not otherwise show how the denial affected the outcome of the trial," the court said in its ruling.