McClatchy Washington Bureau

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Five Miami men convicted of conspiring to support the terrorist organization al-Qaida lost their appeal Tuesday for a new trial.

A federal appeals court ruled that U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard did not make a mistake when she removed a main juror and replaced her with an alternate juror during trial deliberations that led to the men’s convictions.

The judge removed the unidentified woman, known only as Juror No. 4, in late April 2009 because the other 11 jurors said she refused to deliberate about the five remaining defendants in a group originally dubbed the “Liberty City Seven.”

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta had to find a “clear error” by the trial judge to overrule Lenard’s decision to eject Juror No. 4.

“In light of the consistent answers given by eleven of the jurors, and the vague and evasive answers given by Juror No. 4, we cannot say that the district court clearly erred in finding that Juror No. 4 was not willing to follow the court’s instructions,” the panel ruled unanimously.

The trial judge’s decision led to the juror’s replacement by the alternate juror, a man, and the eventual conviction of the five defendants on material-support conspiracy charges. One other defendant was acquitted and another defendant had been found not guilty in an earlier trial.

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