King Jurors

So Lawrence Powell, convicted felon, concludes that his jury was composed of "cowards" ("Powell Says King Jurors Took the 'Easy Out,' " June 3). This, we must understand, from a well-trained, armed police officer, who in the company of a group of similarly armed and trained officers estimated to have numbered from 12 to 23, could not take one large, drunken, crawling, kneeling man into custody without first smashing him into submission. The members of the jury need not be offended or concerned.

Federal prosecutors vowed Friday to retry boxing promoter Don King on insurance- fraud charges after jurors were dismissed in his first trial. A mistrial was declared in the case Thursday, when the jury deadlocked on a verdict. Prosecutors appealed to a higher court to force further deliberations but gave up on that approach Friday. When the mistrial was made official Friday, King walked smiling from the courtroom, saying, "I am going to church." Jurors said the panel was divided.

As a criminal defense attorney who represents black defendants charged with assault crimes, it seems obvious the prosecutor in the King beating created a crime without a victim when he decided not to call Rodney King to testify. In my years in the criminal defense field, I cannot think of a case where the prosecutor did not call the victim to the stand. The prosecution bears a heavy burden in this case to justify its strategy. ROBERT E. KROLL Oakland

If anyone knows what life will now be like for jurors in the O.J. Simpson trial, it is the former jurors in the first Rodney G. King beating trial in Simi Valley. And several of the Ventura County residents who served on the King jury said Tuesday that jurors in the media-saturated "trial of the century" are in for one rough ride. They will be second-guessed, made fun of and cursed. Tabloid reporters will hound them for months, even years. Their lives will never be the same.

Midway into their deliberations, jurors in the Rodney G. King federal civil rights trial were virtually unanimous on three points, a member of the jury said Monday at his Fullerton home. King was never an aggressor. Sgt. Stacey C. Koon violated King's civil rights. Officer Theodore J. Briseno did not. A few jurors were wavering on the culpability of Officer Laurence M. Powell and former Officer Timothy E. Wind.

Deliberations resumed Thursday when a juror in the Rodney G. King civil rights trial rejoined the rest of the panel, ending a recess called Wednesday because of the juror's sudden illness. No details were disclosed about which juror had suffered the ailment, but the malady appeared to have been minor and cost the jury only one afternoon's work.

A juror who brought a dictionary to the jury room Wednesday to look up the word reprehensible got a lecture from the judge in the Rodney G. King civil trial. "The law is not to be found in Webster's dictionary," U.S. District Judge John G. Davies said. "It's to be found in the (court's) instructions." Davies said the slip-up was harmless, and attorneys for both sides agreed.

Six prospective jurors in the Rodney G. King civil rights trial, including three of the four minority members of the initial panel of jury candidates, were dismissed Thursday after U.S. District Judge John G. Davies ruled that they could not be impartial. They were replaced by six new potential jurors as the search continues to find 12 citizens deemed capable of weighing evidence fairly.

In their 10th day of deliberations, jurors in Rodney G. King's civil lawsuit passed a note to the judge that lawyers interpreted as indicating that jurors may be stuck over whether the force used by police officers was so excessive that it violated King's constitutional rights. The jury asked U.S. District Judge John G. Davies if a police policy that sanctioned the use of batons to break bones could be considered a violation of the U.S.

Jurors in the trial of Rodney G. King's federal lawsuit worked quietly through a third day of deliberations Thursday, giving no sign of any progress they might be making. The panel adjourned late in the day, having apparently completed almost 19 hours in the jury room without reaching a verdict. Lawyers in the case also made few appearances at the Roybal Federal Building, where a room full of reporters awaited the jury's decision. The jurors, who awarded King $3.

A juror who brought a dictionary to the jury room Wednesday to look up the word reprehensible got a lecture from the judge in the Rodney G. King civil trial. "The law is not to be found in Webster's dictionary," U.S. District Judge John G. Davies said. "It's to be found in the (court's) instructions." Davies said the slip-up was harmless, and attorneys for both sides agreed.

Jurors in Rodney G. King's federal lawsuit against the city sent a note to the judge Monday asking if attorneys fees should be considered when determining the amount of money to award King. U.S. District Judge John G. Davies said he would tell the jury no. But the communication was an indication to some that the jury may be nearing a decision on the amount to compensate King for his injuries from the police beating on March 3, 1991. The 10 jurors have been deliberating since Wednesday afternoon.

The federal court jurors now deliberating Rodney King's lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles are grappling with a question to which few before them have found an answer: Who is Rodney Glen King? For three years, he has been a one-dimensional symbol, a lightning rod, an icon for competing visions of social justice and crime and punishment. Although this is the third time the King beating has been brought before a jury, it is the first time that King, the man, has occupied center stage.

The first reunion of jurors in the Rodney G. King civil rights trial was punctuated Saturday by complaints from five jurors that Officer Laurence M. Powell and Sgt. Stacey C. Koon should have received longer prison sentences than the 2 1/2-year terms handed down Wednesday. One in the group, who wished to only be identified as Juror No. 3, had tears well in his eyes as he denounced the sentence by U.S. District Judge John G.

So Lawrence Powell, convicted felon, concludes that his jury was composed of "cowards" ("Powell Says King Jurors Took the 'Easy Out,' " June 3). This, we must understand, from a well-trained, armed police officer, who in the company of a group of similarly armed and trained officers estimated to have numbered from 12 to 23, could not take one large, drunken, crawling, kneeling man into custody without first smashing him into submission. The members of the jury need not be offended or concerned.

LAPD Officer Laurence M. Powell says that federal jurors, fearing they might be "attacked by angry mobs if they acquitted us . . . buckled under to cowardice" when they convicted him and Sgt. Stacey C. Koon in the Rodney G. King civil rights case. Speaking out for the first time since the verdicts were announced April 17, Powell says the jury took the "easy out" when it listened to the "politically correct" arguments of the prosecution and voted to convict.