Jury’s notes highlight how complicated this case ispublished at 23:06 British Summer Time 30 June
Nomi IQBAL
North America correspondent
Image source, Reuters / Jane RosenbergA court sketch shows Sean Diddy Combs turn around to speak to his family
The jury has now gone home for the day after starting their deliberations this morning, when the judge read out their instructions.
But a short while after the jurors were sent out of court, they returned a note indicating that one of the jurors had some sort of issue with following the judge’s instructions. Lawyers on both sides agreed that the best course of action was to tell the jury to go back and carry on deliberating.
There’s no sense of what about this particular juror might be a concern, and issues like this are why juries seat alternates at the beginning of a trial.
But the proceedings today underline just how complex this case is. There are five charges that Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing – and the jury of eight men and four women have a lot to weigh up as they decide whether or not he is guilty.
Do they accept the government’s case, which is that Combs carried out sexual abuse and violence against two women, including his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, by using his business empire as some sort of criminal enterprise?
Or do they believe the defence’s arguments, which is that the hip hop mogul had a complicated and extreme private life, but it was just that: private. They say there was was nothing criminal about it, and the government has overreached in these charges.
The case is now in the jury’s hands. If Combs is found guilty on the most serious charges of racketeering conspiracy, he could face up to life in prison.
We are pausing our live coverage of this case for now, but we’ll be back with more from court on Tuesday. You can read more about how witness testimony in the case went down over the last several weeks here: Who testified in the Diddy trial?
