Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Success! Now Check Your Email

To complete Subscribe, click the confirmation link in your inbox. If it doesn’t arrive within 3 minutes, check your spam folder.

Ok, Thanks
"The Pedicure Has Got To Go": Jury Deliberation Drags On In Roman Storm Trial
A juror will miss her birthday-party pedicure, and instead deliberate the fate of Roman Storm.

"The Pedicure Has Got To Go": Jury Deliberation Drags On In Roman Storm Trial

Jurors' schedules are nearly as difficult to navigate as the blockchain technology at the heart of Roman Storm's trial.

David Z. Morris profile image
by David Z. Morris

Manhattan - The criminal trial of Roman Storm entered its fourth week on Monday, with jurors beginning their second full day of deliberation late. No verdict was reached, and their discussion of the charges and evidence now seems likely to continue through a shortened morning Tuesday and into Wednesday, if not even longer.

Storm is one of the co-creators of Tornado Cash, a privacy protocol on Ethereum. His prosecution for money laundering at this stage substantially hangs on the question of whether his intentions were criminal, and if so at what stage of Tornado Cash’s development. But much of the prosecution’s case for criminal intent relies on nuanced readings of private text messages and other communications that often seem ironic or humorous.

The nuance of the matter of intent, compounded by the technical complexity of Ethereum and Tornado Cash, would certainly seem to justify serious and detailed deliberation – and indeed, the jury has already requested reams of transcripts and asked detailed (if not always strictly relevant) questions about evidence.

Podcast: Everything You Need to Know About The Trial Against Roman Storm
We sat down with Amanda Tuminelli, CEO of the DeFi Education Fund, party to Roman Storm’s case and former criminal defense lawyer, Taylor Monahan, Security at Metamask and expert blockchain tracer, privacy and FOSS advocate Molly White of Citation Needed, and member of the Ethereum Foundation Silviculture Society Tim Clancy,

An Upbeat Roman Storm Awaits his Fate

Roman Storm himself seemed notably calm and lighthearted as strangers contemplated what could add up to more than four decades in prison for him. Storm has been stoic for the entire trial, rarely visibly reacting to any testimony, and ultimately choosing not to take the stand in his own defense. But today a more open Storm was seen laughing with his legal team, and even talking with supporters in the gallery.

That ease may reflect optimism about the verdict: observers have uniformly noted that more time spent deliberating is a signal in Storm’s favor, indicating that jurors are digging beneath the surface of prosecution claims. Even in a worst-case scenario, sources familiar with the thinking of Storm's defense lawyers say they see many grounds for appealing any conviction.

The case's shaky foundations were hinted at in an evidentiary question sent by the jury around 10:30. They asked Judge Failla to clarify whether Roman Storm was legally obligated to answer inquiries from international law enforcement. Several exhibits in evidence were letters or emails to Tornado Cash seeking help recovering funds processed through the protocol, including from police around the world.

As with the case of witness Hanfeng Lin, such inquiries from fraud victims or law enforcement were generally meant only to show that Storm was aware that the protocol was being used by bad actors, not as evidence that global law enforcement was correct that Tornado Cash played a role in specific cases. It seems inevitable that such limited and confusing evidence might lead jurors to think Storm was being accused of wrongdoing for failure to comply with these inquiries. This has been part of a more general prosecution effort to associate Storm with crimes to which he had no direct connection.

In essence, Failla’s response was to simply tell the jury that there were no charges related to failing to comply with law enforcement in the indictment, and to urge them to focus on evidence and charges presented in the case. Nevertheless, prosecution and defense wrangled for more than 20 minutes over the exact wording of this short note: during deliberation, they can only communicate with the jury indirectly, through these notes, making every word all the more precious, and worth fighting over.

A Midsummer Month’s Trial

As Storm’s trial enters its fourth week, an extending timeline can be blamed partly on complex scheduling demands and conflicts among jurors.

Jurors began deliberation last Thursday following closing statements on Wednesday. They then took Friday off due to a juror’s pre-existing conflict. Now they will have only a half day of deliberation tomorrow, Tuesday August 5th, and one juror appears to have a hard conflict that prevents them from deliberating past Friday. If a verdict hasn’t been reached by that point, the juror would be removed, potentially re-starting the deliberation process with an alternate juror.

On top of all that, jurors renewed their deliberations late today, at about 10am instead of a planned 9:30 start time, thanks to a late juror. The innocent-until-proven-guilty party seems to have been juror #6, a younger male juror. Juror #6 has seemed very engaged in the trial, but this isn’t the first time he’s been late – an eyewitness in the courtroom reported that lawyers had a laugh when the clerk told them that “guess who” was late again.

Juror #6 also stars in one of the small courtroom subplots of the Storm trial – he seems to have formed a warm bond with juror #5, a young woman. Maybe things are just friendly, maybe more, but everyone in the courtroom seems to be rooting for them.

The jury as a whole has reached a certain friendliness and common cause. They’ll be limited to a half day tomorrow because one juror has a birthday party for a 90-year-old grandmother, which was planned to include, seemingly, a 10am pedicure session as well as a 4pm dinner.

Jurors were initially happy to take the entire day off to accommodate the celebration, but Judge Failla, as she explained her reasoning to lawyers and the gallery, said she wanted the jury to deliberate at least half of every day.

“I think the pedicure has got to go,” she ruled, perspicacious as Solomon. The juror’s reaction was “sad, but not devastated,” the Judge reported. Jurors decided they’d get an early start on Tuesday, beginning deliberations at 8:30 am.

With tomorrow’s half-day in the books, jurors briefly considered working later today, but were ultimately dismissed at 4pm. They will resume their work bright and early tomorrow.

Independent journalism does not finance itself. If you enjoyed this article, please consider making a donation. If you would like to note a correction to this article, please email corrections@therage.co

David Z. Morris profile image
by David Z. Morris

Tornado Cash Special

Subscribe to get all news on the trial against Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm directly to your inbox

Success! Now Check Your Email

To complete Subscribe, click the confirmation link in your inbox. If it doesn’t arrive within 3 minutes, check your spam folder.

Ok, Thanks

Read More