By Mary Jane Stevenson
Court TV

One of the jurors who in May voted to convict Sandy Murphy and Rick Tabish of murdering former casino mogul Ted Binion now says she thinks they are innocent.

Read Sanders' affidavit

“I do not believe Sandy Murphy or Rick Tabish did anything to Lonnie “Ted” Binion on September 17, 1998 to cause his death,” Joan Sanders (Juror 10) said in a sworn affidavit filed Thursday by Murphy’s attorney John Momot.

The affidavit was filed as part of a hearing for a new trial expected to begin Friday morning.

Murphy and Tabish were convicted of first-degree murder on May 19. The same jury sentenced the two lovers to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 20 years.

But Lawyers for Tabish and Murphy say they are entitled to a new trial partly because of misconduct during deliberations. The misconduct charges arose earlier in the summer when Sanders called Momot and agreed to let him interview her. Although Momot outlined some of Sanders' claims in legal papers, this is the first time the details of her feelings about the defendants’ guilt have been made public.

The jury deliberated a Las Vegas record eight days before reaching a verdict. Sanders said the first vote was seven to five for acquittal. But she said during the last day of deliberations ten jurors voted guilty. Sanders said she told the other jurors she believed Murphy and Tabish were in Binion’s house when he died but were not responsible for his death.

“Fellow jurors told me that if the defendants were in the house at the time of death, that is the same as murder,” Sanders said in the affidavit. “In response to the fellow jurors’ comment, I became physically ill and cried.”

Read jury profiles and affidavits

Sanders said that during deliberations the jurors often used the phrase “depraved indifference,” a legal term never mentioned at trial. Several jurors backed up that claim in affidavits filed by prosecutors in response to the defense motions. But the other jurors said no one did outside legal research to come up with the term.

The law forbids jurors from doing any personal research about a case. Defense attorney Momot said he believes one of the jurors may have found the term on Court TV’s Web site in reference to the trial of four New York officers charged with the murder of African immigrant Amadou Diallo.

Sanders said the concept of “depraved indifference” convinced her to vote guilty. She said those jurors explained to her “if you are present in the house while the person is dying you are guilty just as if you actually committed the act because you are not assisting the dying person.”

The deliberations became extremely contentious at times, according to Sanders. She said several jurors “badgered” a fellow panel member and made her cry.

“The other jurors would surround her and yell at her,” the affidavit states.