Thursday, 4:30 PM
Jurors: race talk tainted panel
By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff
Three members of the jury that convicted a black trash collector in the rape and murder of a white fashion writer on Cape Cod said in sworn statements that other jurors made repeated racist remarks during deliberations, at one point almost triggering a fight.
In affidavits filed Monday that lie at the heart of a motion seeking a new trial for Christopher M. McCowen, the three jurors said other members of the panel referred to the defendant as ‘‘an intimidating big black guy’’ and voiced fears that he was staring at them. The affidavits also asserted that one juror described bruises on Christa Worthington, the victim, as the predictable result when a ‘‘200-pound black guy beats on a small woman.’’
The remarks prompted one of the jurors who submitted an affidavit to call another juror a racist and almost led to a fight between the two women, who had to be separated, the affidavits said.
Robert A. George, who defended McCowen in the case, said the three jurors who submitted the affidavits had called him separately shortly after the Nov. 16 guilty verdict that resulted in a life sentence.
"Over the years, I’ve been contacted by jurors after a trial, but I’ve never had three jurors from the same jury contact me," George said in an interview Monday. "If true, it demands a new trial free of racial bias."
