Jurors deadlocked in Roman Storm trial over Tornado Cash allegations

The Roman Storm trial has hit a snag after four days of jury deliberations, with jurors informing the court that they remain deadlocked on certain charges, according to an Aug. 6 court reporting from Inner City Press.

Judge Katherine Polk Failla revealed that the jury had submitted a note stating some members were firmly set in their positions, signaling a deadlock. She acknowledged the situation, saying the court might need to accept a partial verdict rather than wait indefinitely for full consensus.

Storm’s attorney, Brian Klein, urged the court to recognize the jury’s impasse. He suggested the panel should mark each charge as “Guilty,” “Not Guilty,” or simply write “No Agreement” where consensus couldn’t be reached.

Prosecutors, led by Assistant US Attorney Thane Arad, proposed a different approach of encouraging jurors to return verdicts on charges where agreement existed while continuing deliberation on the rest.

However, Judge Failla instructed the jury that they could return any completed verdicts, continue debating the unresolved counts, or formally report their deadlock.

Community awaits ruling

Storm, a key figure behind the Ethereum-based privacy protocol Tornado Cash, is facing allegations of facilitating over $1 billion in money laundering.

His case has drawn significant support from the crypto community, which argues that Storm simply wrote open-source code and should not be punished for how others used it.

Key industry figures, such as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and firms like DeFi Education Fund, have spoken out, warning that the case could set a dangerous precedent.

The US Department of Justice’s controversial interpretation of financial laws is at the heart of the debate. Under its current stance, developers could face criminal liability for writing code that others later use unlawfully, even if the developers were not involved in those actions.

Industry leaders have warned that this approach risks criminalizing software development itself and urged lawmakers in the US to clarify that writing code, especially open-source tools, should not be treated as operating an unlicensed money transmission business.

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