In the film "The Maltese Falcon," Humphrey Bogart famously described the black bird as "the stuff dreams are made of." For any trial judge, the disclosure that two jurors in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial shared their experience as sexual abuse survivors during deliberations is the stuff nightmares are made of.

Throughout the trial, a judge strives to provide a framework that protects, if not insures, the integrity of the jury's fact-finding process. The court takes care to create a record of admissible evidence free from the distractions of extraneous arguments and information that has not survived the tests of judicial scrutiny and cross-examination.