denied a dictionary?

[anart]

According to Yahoo! news, this came over the AP today:

Moussaoui Jury Can't Have Dictionary
AP - 2 hours, 3 minutes ago
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Jurors in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui asked for but were denied a dictionary Tuesday for use during their deliberations on whether the Sept. 11 conspirator should receive a death sentence or life in prison. Before their lunch break, the jurors -- and Moussaoui -- filed into the courtroom to hear the response of Judge Leonie Brinkema to the request to have a dictionary in the jury room.



Perhaps they were going to look up the words theatre, coercion, reality, brainwashing, lie, stun-belt, patsy, mentally competent (the list is endless) ? Can't have that, now can we?

 

[rs]

My favorite item was:

Jurors in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui asked for but were denied a dictionary Tuesday for use during their deliberations on whether the confessed al-Qaida conspirator should receive a death sentence or life in prison.

Before their lunch break, the jurors -- and Moussaoui -- filed into the courtroom to hear the response of U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema to the request to have a dictionary in the jury room.

Brinkema told them that sending a dictionary in would be like adding additional evidence in the case, but she invited them to come back if they had questions about specific definitions. And she warned them against doing their own research, including looking up definitions.

Wow, only a lawyer could consider a dictionary "evidence". What are they afraid of, having the jury look up the word "guilty" and see it defined as:

Guilty: what Zacarias Moussaoui is.

or the word "dead" and see:

Dead: what Zacarias Moussaoui should become.

Unbelievable. "adding evidence".