Terror trial jury pushes past deadlock

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The jury in the retrial of six men accused of plotting to work with al Qaeda to blow up U.S. buildings told a judge Friday that it was deadlocked after 10 days of deliberations, but the judge ordered the 12 to keep working toward a verdict.

The jurors went back and finished the day's deliberations without a verdict.

The first trial ended in a mistrial in December after nine days of deliberations left a jury hopelessly deadlocked on the six defendants. A seventh was acquitted.

The defendants are known as the "Liberty City 7" because authorities say the men operated out of a warehouse in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood.

After their arrest in June 2006, federal officials said the home-grown terror plot might have included as its targets not only the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago -- the tallest building in North America -- but also the FBI's Miami offices and other sites.

At the time, sources said the suspects were dealing with a man who they believed was an al Qaeda operative but who was actually a government informant. Senior federal sources told the network that the men were "not related to al Qaeda" but "possibly" were al Qaeda wannabes.

Five of the seven men are Americans, one was an illegal alien from Haiti whose visa had expired, and the seventh was a resident alien, federal sources said.

The remaining six defendants are Patrick Abraham, Burson Augustin, Rotschild Augustine, Narseal Batiste, Stanley Grant Phanor and Naudimar Herrera.

The jury in the new trial has sent two other notes to the judge since starting deliberations.

On the third day of deliberation, the jury sent the judge a note asking whether it is illegal to swear allegiance to al Qaeda. This question speaks to a key piece of evidence in the government's case: a surveillance video showing the defendants taking an oath of allegiance to al Qaeda.

The defense wanted the jury to be told that it is not illegal to take an oath, but the government strongly disagreed. U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard said that it would not be appropriate to tell the jury yes or no, that it is for the jury to decide whether taking an oath to al Qaeda is illegal.

Last Friday, the sixth day of deliberations, the judge announced that the jury had changed its foreman. After the announcement, a defense lawyer was heard saying, "I have never heard of such a thing."

The jury took Monday off because one juror had a previously scheduled appointment. E-mail to a friend

CNN's John Couwels contributed to this report.

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