Stewart and Michael Parnell have joined in a motion for a new trial filed by defense attorney Thomas J. Bondurant Jr. The motion is sealed, but it references two affidavits, one by a juror and the other by Dallas Carter, a local writer. Contents of the affidavits also have not been made public, as they are part of the sealed motion. Carter was a reporter and courthouse observer for Food Safety News during the trial. However, the legal news site Law360 reported Tuesday that the Parnell brothers’ motion for a new trial is based on arguments about research some jurors may have done on their own into the 2008-09 Salmonella outbreak that led to the 76-count indictment against the defendants. According to Law360, “extrinsic” evidence was considered by the jury, specifically the fact that the outbreak involved nine deaths, information which was not part of the trial but was brought up during deliberations by jurors who did their own research over the course of the seven-week trial. After the jury verdicts were announced on Sept. 19, Judge W. Louis Sands gave all the parties 30 days to file post-trial motions. Beginning with Mary Wilkerson’s request for acquittal of her conviction on one of two obstruction of justice counts, a flow of motions and orders has occurred. In addition to joining his brother in the motion for a new trial, 55-year-old Michael Parnell has filed a separate motion of his own for acquittal on the 30 counts on which the jury found him guilty. His defense attorney, Ed Tolley of Athens, GA, says that Michael Parnell moved for a judgment of acquittal on all counts when the government concluded its case Sept. 10, and the court took the motion under advisement. Among the counts on which the peanut broker was convicted were conspiracy, interstate shipments fraud, and the introductions of misbranded and adulterated food into interstate commerce. In moving for acquittal, Michael Parnell’s defense attorneys are arguing that the evidence introduced at trial was insufficient and that the government failed to prove that he knew or intended to ship misbranded food or participated in any conspiracy or fraudulent scheme. On Tuesday, Judge Sands entered three orders involving the defendants, but all of those are also sealed. Two of them involve all four original defendants in the case: Stewart Parnell, Michael Parnell, Samuel Lightsey and Mary Wilkerson. The third involves only Wilkerson. The jury found 60-year-old Stewart Parnell guilty on 67 felony counts in the fraud and conspiracy case. Based in Lynchburg, VA, he once owned the now-defunct Peanut Corporation of America. Lightsey was named in the original February 2013 indictment, but he opted to enter into a plea bargain with the government in May 2014. He testified for almost six days during the trial in exchange for capping any potential jail time he’ll face to six years.