Judge Edward Burmila replied, "The word unanimous has its common meaning, it indicates the agreement of all on the matter at hand. Your verdict must be unanimous and signed by all."
Jurors are in their second day of deliberations in the murder trial. The former Bolingbrook police officer is accused of killing his third wife, Kathleen Savio. The seven men and five women began deliberating Thursday at 9:05 a.m. at the Will County Courthouse.
Peterson, 58, is charged with first-degree murder in the 2004 death Savio. Savio's body was found in her bathtub, and her death was originally ruled an accident. However, the case was reopened after Peterson's fourth-wife, Stacy Peterson, disappeared in 2007.
Jurors, who are in their second day of deliberations, have to determine if Savio was murdered.
Prosecutors called medical experts who testified that the injuries on her body indicated she had been murdered and her body was staged in the bathtub to look like an accident. Witnesses called other medical experts who argued the injuries she suffered were from a fall in the bathtub, and that she drowned.
On Wednesday, jurors had three questions for the judge.
"I am confident they will do everything methodically. That is what it comes down to. Everybody tried to read something into the first request, but by the time we got to the third, we saw that they're still considering all questions and probably going through everything methodically, just not in the order we think they should. They're the jury and they get to decide," defense attorney Joel Brodsky said.
Jurors heard six weeks of testimony, much of which consisted of hearsay evidence in which friends of spoke about what Savio and the still missing Stacy had told them. Witnesses for the prosecution told the jury that Savio said Peterson threatened her. Stacy Peterson's friends testified that she told them Peterson had murdered Savio, and she had lied to police for her husband.
The defense argued there was no physical evidence in the case indicating it was a crime or connecting Peterson to the scene.
