Jurors in Zoloft Case Called Back to Court
By BRUCE SMITH, Associated Press Writer
CHARLESTON, S.C. -
Jurors in the trial of a teenager who unsuccessfully blamed Zoloft after killing his grandparents were back in court Tuesday because the defense claimed one panelist talked to a bartender about the case the night before the verdict.
Attorneys for 15-year-old Christopher Pittman have filed a motion for a new trial because of alleged juror misconduct.
Judge Danny Pieper privately questioned panelists about their deliberations for about 3 1/2 hours.
"It's clear at this point that nothing about the entire conversation was brought into the jury room," the judge said later.
In its motion for the new trial, the defense contended had the judge known a juror discussed the case outside the courtroom, the juror would have been dismissed.
The alternate who would have replaced him felt strongly Pittman was not guilty and "her involvement as a deliberating juror may have resulted in an acquittal," the defense argued.
There was no immediate ruling on the motion, nor on one seeking a reduction in Pittman's 30-year sentence.
Defense attorney Andy Vickery also asked to amend his sentencing brief after the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) on Tuesday found the execution of defendants younger than 18 at the time a crime is committed is unconstitutional.
Pittman was convicted Feb. 15 of murder in the shotgun slayings of his grandparents — Joe Pittman, 66, and Joy Pittman, 62 — in November 2001.
The defense contended Pittman, then 12, was involuntarily intoxicated by the antidepressant Zoloft and didn't know right from wrong. The prosecution said the youth was angry because his grandparents disciplined him for choking a younger student on a school bus.
Pittman's case was not a death penalty case; executions for those 15 and younger when they committed crimes were outlawed in 1988.
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