After a few stumbles in the beginning, the Elizabeth Holmes trial has gone on for nearly 10 weeks, and the prosecution is expected to rest next week in the trial of the founder of disgraced blood-testing company Theranos.
The proceedings had a few hiccups in the beginning due to COVID-19 exposure risks and other issues, Three of the original jurors were actually dismissed, and the pool of five alternates, which at first appeared a bit extreme, has now been depleted.
"It’s been a long ride for these jurors," said Heather Somerville, the reporter covering the trial for the Wall Street Journal on KCBS Radio Friday morning.
The trial has been quite long already, and it started out as just three days a week, with early dismissal, around 2 p.m.
But that has proved insufficient, and next week the trial will go on for five days, said Somerville. Already another juror has expressed concern over managing their workload with this new schedule.
The prosecution has worked hard to paint a picture of Holmes over the last two and a half months as knowing full well that her company’s devices didn’t work, but went ahead and sought more fame and funding anyways.
Now that the prosecution will rest, jurors and spectators are likely waiting with bated breath for the defense to put Holmes on the stand.
In an unusual move, the defense team stated early on that they intended to have Holmes testify in her defense. But it’s unclear if they plan to follow through on that, said Somerville.
"Often that decision comes at the very last minute in these sorts of trials," she said. "If she does indeed testify, it will make everything that comes before it sort of a distant memory."
People will likely be hanging on every word that Holmes has to say, she said. "If she develops a sort of rapport with the jurors, while she’s testifying, that will be very significant to the outcome of this case."
It’s unclear when the case will finally wrap up, depending on what kind of case the defense brings next week. "Let’s hope we’re done by Christmas," said Somerville.
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