THE VIGIL

Judge Skinner instructed the jurors on the rules of law that would govern their efforts to
reach a verdict. Everyone is having their own sort of vigil while waiting for the verdict.
Schlichtmann decided to stay and wait along the corridors. Jean Coulsey couldn’t avoid
seeing Schlichtmann standing at the end of the dark corridor every morning when she
stepped off the elevator.
The day they began their formal deliberations, the clerk brought all the evidence up to
the jury room—it took him several trips—and the list of questions that had been devised for
them to answer. The jurors were confused, they thought they would just tell if they are guilty
or innocent.
Vogel suggested they begin by taking a vote to see where everyone stood. For his part,
he believed that both companies were, as he put it, “guilty” of contaminating the wells, but
he didn’t reveal this opinion to his fellow jurors right away. As foreman, he thought he
should wait until the others made their opinion known. AT first, they try to do voting of who
finds the companies guilty or not guilty. Then they examined the evidence presented.
Robert Fox had abstained on the initial vote, he felt Beatrice should not be held liable
but Coulsey felt intuitively that the companies were responsible. With these arguments,
Vogel said it was apparent they were getting nowhere on Beatrice. Coulsey’s search turned
up two pieces of evidence showing that chemicals had been dumped on the fifteen acres
between 1968 and 1979, but Fox insisted that this did not constitute a “preponderance of
the evidence.” Vogel suggested they turn their attention to Grace.However, the situation did
not changed. Vogel then write a note to the judge that they cannot reach a unanimous
decision on Question 1 for either Grace or Beatrice. The judge called for the jury and
instruct them to deliberate again. Another message came from Vogel excusing himself to
be the jury foreman because of his schedule on cardiac surgery. The alternate will be Dina
Gilbern. Judge Skinner requested Vogel to stay until Monday.
The sheriff came to repossess Schlichtmann’s Porsche.
Monday came, the jury already had a verdict. Vogel informed that they held that there is
a preponderance of evidence to held Grace liable but not Beatrice. Thus, Beatrice is now
out of the case. The second question,asking for the month and year that the chemicals from
Grace had arrived at the wells in “substantial” amounts. They agreed that they didn’t know
the answer to that. They put in “ND” for “Not Determined.” The third if Grace had failed to
fulfill any duty of due care to the plaintiffs. To this they answered “Yes.”The fourth question
they answered September 1973.
Judge informed the lawyers and told Facher that he is no longer needed. The Judge will
be seeing the briefs of Grace and Schlichtmann by September 15. Schlichtmann called
Donna Robbins from the pay phone in the corridor, holding his hand to his ear so that he
could hear above the noise of the crowd. He told her about the verdict and asked her to
notify the other families. Schlichtmann was disappointed of the verdict. It will be hard to
prove for him considering the date given by the jurors was before three children got
leukemia.
In the meeting hall at Trinity Episcopal Church, Schlichtmann explained the verdict of
the jury but assured the family that they are still in the case altogether.
Phillips and Conwey wanted the case to be finished and that most probably they’ll have
a settlement for twenty-five million if they are lucky.
Schlichtmann went to the Good Morning America together with Donna Robbins, Kiley
and Rikki.