A former BP engineer convicted of obstructing justice during the fallout of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill has been granted a new trial.
The move comes after US District Judge Stanwood Duval of New Orleans ruled the engineer did not have an impartial jury.
Kurt Mix was originally convicted in December on one of the two counts of obstructing justice in connection with the BP oil well blowout after deleting hundreds of messages between him and his supervisor in the spill’s aftermath.
He was the first of four current or former BP employees charged with crimes connected to the disaster tried.
However, after his conviction Mix’s lawyers sought out several jurors to interview. Mix was unaware of their plight, according to Duval.
His lawyers soon compiled enough evidence to plead the case of a comprised jury.
Several jurors told the legal team a juror had said she was not going to “lose any sleep” in finding Mix guilty after she heard something outside the jury room.
Duval, who previously said the law team’s interviews were “inappropriate and contrary to the law of this district and circuit”, allowed the five jurors to testify regarding the uncovered information.
The jurors confirmed the juror in question said she had heard information outside of the courtroom that gave her “comfort” in issuing the guilty verdict.
“These extreme circumstances place the very sanctity of the impartial nature of Mix’s jury at issue,” Duval said.
“The jury further failed to head the court’s instructions in that after this information was imparted to the jury, the jury failed to inform the court of its occurrence.”
He concluded Mix “was not tried by an impartial jury” and ruled a new trial was needed.
Joan McPhee, a lawyer for Mix, said she was “deeply gratified” by the outcome.
BP’s Gulf of Mexico disaster was the country’s worst ever oil spill, stretching on for 87 days.
The 2010 well explosion killed 11 workers.
