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June 12 (Reuters) - An engineer convicted of obstructingjustice in connection with the 2010 BP oil well blowout in theGulf of Mexico won a new trial on Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval of New Orleans tossed outhis December conviction of Kurt Mix, a former BP Plc employee, and concluded that conduct by one of the 12 jurorsmeant he did not have an impartial jury.
"These extreme circumstances place the very sanctity of theimpartial nature of Mix's jury at issue," Duval said.
Joan McPhee, a lawyer for Mix, said she was "deeplygratified" by the ruling.
A spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department did not respondto a request for comment.
Mix was convicted on one of two counts of obstruction fordeleting hundreds of messages he exchanged with his supervisorand a contractor in the weeks after the spill.
He was part of a team that scrambled to plug the Macondowell and figure out how much oil was leaking in what became theworst offshore environmental disaster in U.S. history.
The Macondo well explosion on April 20, 2010, killed 11workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and triggered an87-day oil spill in which millions of gallons of crude flowedinto the Gulf of Mexico.
Mix was the first of four current or former BP employeescharged with crimes connected with the well incident to betried.
After the trial, Mix's lawyers had interviewed severaljurors without first notifying him, according to Duval. Somejurors told them that a juror had told them she heard somethingoutside of the jury room that would allow her to not "lose anysleep" in finding Mix guilty.
In his decision on Thursday, Duval noted the jurors wereunder strict instructions not to disclose information about jurydeliberations, and said the interviews were "inappropriate andcontrary to the law of this district and circuit".
But in light of the interviews, Duval called the jurors totestify about what happened. Five members of the panel said thejuror in question said she had heard information outside of thecourtroom that gave her "comfort" in finding Mix guilty.
Duval said the juror's actions were in "contravention of thecourt's instructions" and came at a "critical time in thedeliberations".
"The jury further failed to head the court's instructions inthat after this information was imparted to the jury, the juryfailed to inform the court of its occurrence," according toDuval.
Duval said based on the jurors' testimony alone, Mix "wasnot tried by an impartial jury" and deserved a new trial.
The case is U.S. v. Mix, U.S. District Court, EasternDistrict of Louisiana, No. 12-cr-00171. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by MuralikumarAnantharaman)
