Jurors deliberating the fate of athletics coach Trevor Graham reached a verdict Wednesday on one of three counts that he lied to investigators probing doping in sports, but told the judge they are “hopelessly deadlocked” on the other two. US District Judge Susan Illston read the panel instructions for a deadlocked jury and sent it back for further deliberations. Less than an hour later, the 12-person jury wrapped up their first full day of deliberations without coming to a conclusion on the other counts. The jury was set to resume deliberations Thursday. “I don't think the amount of deliberations so far is sufficient for the jury to be deadlocked,” Assistant US Attorney Jeff Finigan told the judge before she read the instructions. The jurors began deliberations late Tuesday afternoon, meeting for about an hour before going home. Defense attorney William Keane objected to the reading of the instructions, saying they had deliberated long enough. Graham is charged with three counts of lying to two government agents about his relationship with Angel “Memo” Heredia, a Laredo, Texas, discus thrower who bought performance-enhancing drugs in Mexico and sold them to many world championship athletes. The case stemmed from the investigation of the San Francisco-area Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, which was found to have provided doping agents to internationally renown athletes such as Marion Jones, Tim Montomery and Dwain Chambers. Gatlin doping hearing begins Justin Gatlin saved his speech for sport's highest court Wednesday. The American sprinter, who's seeking a further reduction in a four-year doping ban to defend his 100-meter title at the Beijing Olympics, declined comment before the start of his hearing with the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The hearing will continue through Thursday. Gatlin, who has served half of a four-year ban, tested positive for excessive testosterone at the Kansas Relays in 2006, his second doping violation. He has maintained he never knowingly took a performance-enhancing drug. Gatlin contends his first doping violation in 2001 should be rescinded because it involved a medicine he was taking for attention deficit disorder. Gatlin was suspended from international competition for two years, but the IAAF reinstated him after one year. If the 2001 offense is eliminated, Gatlin's suspension likely would be sliced to two years. That would make him eligible for competition in time for the US Olympic athletics trials, which are June 27-July 6 in Eugene, Oregon. The International Association of Athletics Federations argues Gatlin should be banned for life but has indicated that restoring Gatlin's original eight-year suspension would accomplish that. A US arbitration panel already reduced Gatlin's suspension to four years from a possible eight-year ban earlier this year. – AP __
