Ohio murder conviction tossed over sleeping jurors

CLEVELAND (AP) — An appellate court has overturned a murder conviction in Cleveland because at least two jurors slept during parts of the trial.

The 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals granted a new trial on Thursday for 35-year-old Arif Majid. He was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for fatally shooting a man and wounding three others at a bar in the suburb of Euclid.

Prosecutors say they tried to bring the sleeping jurors to Judge Kathleen Ann Sutula’s attention five times. She told the prosecutors that they had picked the jury so the sleeping was their problem.

The judge now says she was joking and the jury never heard those comments.