Sudoko derails Australian drug trial

In Illinois, jurors may be permitted to take notes at trial as authorized by 705 ILCS 315/1(b).

Jurors in Australia can take notes, too. Counsel trying a drug conspiracy case in the courtroom of Sydney District Court Judge Peter Zahra thought the jurors hearing the case were quite "diligent" because they seemed to be taking "copious amounts of notes."

Then someone noticed that some of the jurors weren't just writing horizontally... they were writing vertically, too.

It turns out, according to the linked BBC News article, that five of the jurors were working Sudoku puzzles while the evidence was being presented. One juror told the Australian Associated Press that the puzzles "helped keep her 'mind busy' as she listened to" the testimony. "Some of the evidence is rather drawn out, and I find it difficult to maintain my attention the whole time," she said.

Judge Zahra has dismissed the jury in the three month drug conspiracy trial, a trial that, the BBC noted, had cost Australian taxpayers over a million Australian dollars ($945,000 U.S.). The trial will begin again in a couple of weeks.