Six days and still no verdict in the Atlanta Public Schools cheating trial.
By the time the jurors headed home Monday afternoon, they had spent a total of 40 hours deliberating the massive racketeering case against 12 former educators accused of changing students’ answers on the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Test with the goal of raising scores to meet federal benchmarks.
The jury had only one question Monday.
Jurors wanted to see the CRCT tests taken at Dunbar Elementary, where three of the 12 defendants taught.
The note written on a yellow sheet from a legal notepad was the only evidence that the jury was working Monday. They did not come into the courtroom Monday and the judge was on the bench only briefly, just long enough to read the jury’s request and to wave to prosecutors and defense attorneys as he walked away.
The 12 on trial are charged with racketeering. All but one of the 12 are also charged with other felonies — theft by taking, influencing witnesses, false statements and false statements and writings. Those lesser felonies carry maximum punishments of 10 years in prison.
Former Superintendent Beverly Hall was also charged but she did not go on trial with the others because she was being treated for Stage IV breast cancer. Hall died four weeks ago, after testimony had been completed but before the case was given to the jury.
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