McVeigh Jury Still Without Verdict

DENVER — As tension mounted over the waiting, jurors cut short their third day of deliberations without a verdict Sunday in the Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy J. McVeigh.

“I am going to grant your request that you recess your deliberations now and take the rest of the day off, as it were,” U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch told the jury after its 3 1/2-hour session. “Take advantage of this time now to rest and relax a bit.”

The sequestered panelists, who had deliberated for a total of 19 hours since Friday, were told from the beginning that they could set their own hours and decided to cut their work short at noon Sunday. They planned to resume today.

Before sending the jury back to its hotel, Matsch warned the seven-man, five-woman panel not to discuss the case and to avoid news reports.

McVeigh attorney Stephen Jones said the jury impressed him as “being cautious and careful and considerate,” but he said that didn’t make the wait any easier.

Jones said, however, that McVeigh, who could get the death penalty if convicted on murder and conspiracy charges, is coping relatively well.