Jurors in a Cape Cod Murder Case Testify About Racial Remarks

More than a year after it convicted a black trash hauler of a shocking murder on Cape Cod, a jury returned to court here Thursday for an extraordinary hearing on whether racism influenced its verdict.

The defendant in that trial, Christopher M. McCowen, is serving a life sentence for raping and killing Christa Worthington, a white fashion writer from a wealthy family, at her bungalow in Truro in 2002. But three jurors now say that others made racist remarks during the trial; if Judge Gary A. Nickerson of Barnstable Superior Court finds those contentions credible, he could order a new trial.

Judge Nickerson questioned 7 of the 14 jurors on Thursday, calling them into the courtroom one at a time and asking whether the issue of race came up during their deliberations. Some of the jurors’ answers contradicted those of others, and many said their memories of the deliberations, which took place in November 2006, were vague.

Most of the testimony Thursday concerned comments that the only black woman on the jury, Roshena Bohanna, said she heard two white jurors make.

One of those jurors remarked that the bruises on Ms. Worthington’s body, as seen in evidence photographs, were consistent with “if a big black man hit her,” Ms. Bohanna testified.

The other, Ms. Bohanna said, told her fellow jurors that she feared Mr. McCowen because he was black.

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