Sears Tower Terror Plot Jury Deliberates -- Again

When the charges were first brought in South Florida in June 2006 against a group of men accused of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower, the newspaper headlines and TV reports dominated local news for days, despite the relatively flimsy nature of the evidence.

Now few folks here seem to be paying attention while a jury deliberates once again - for the third time - about whether there really was a credible threat to blow up the Chicago landmark.

"The case -  once touted as a victory in the war on terror - has bedeviled federal prosecutors for three years, so far resulting in two hung juries and the acquittal of a seventh man originally charged in the case," the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports. "The current jury began deliberating Monday. Whatever the panel decides - or even if jurors again split - that will end the controversial prosecution, government lawyers have said."

The case rests mostly on whether the so-called Liberty City Six really intended to carry out its plans, or if they were just engaging in loose talk -- talk encouraged by an undercover FBI agent.

The central figure in the case, Narseal Batiste, is a former Chicago deliveryman for Fed-Ex.

An early signal from the deliberations indicates a confused jury.

The jury sent out a note Tuesday saying they cannot distinguish between two of the four counts," AP reports. "The counts involve conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to destroy buildings using explosives."

Jurors were subjected to 15 hours of closing arguments before retiring to consider the charges.

Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review.

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