For two weeks, witnesses in an El Paso federal courtroom testified about charges of mail fraud and conspiracy against West Texan Billie Sol Estes. Then, for another 50 hours, a jury of two women and ten men (four Negroes) considered the fate of the fertilizer king whose vast, partly imaginary agricultural empire caused national scandal last year. Once, the jurors reported that they were deadlocked. But District Judge Robert E. Thomason refused to declare a hung jury, sent the twelve back to their deliberations with the admonition that "some jury, some time, will have to make a decision...
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