Jurors in the Don Blankenship case have gone home for the evening.

U.S. District Judge Irene Berger released the 12-person jury to go home shortly before 5 p.m. Jurors are due back at the Robert C. Byrd United States Courthouse at 9 a.m. tomorrow to resume their deliberations.

They met for about 6 1/2 hours today.  That makes more than 26 hours of deliberations over five days since Judge Berger gave them the case late last Tuesday afternoon.

Jurors sent no substantive notes to the court today. They were heard from and seen only when about 7 of them took mid-morning and mid-afternoon breaks and when 10 of them left the building for lunch. On those occasions, the jurors were closely escorted by court security officers.