Snipes' Lawyers File Emergency Motion For Retrial

Wesley Snipes' lawyers have filed new papers calling for a retrial yesterday following fresh revelations that there was jury misconduct in his first trial in 2008.

The Blade actor has been told to report to jail today to begin serving his three year sentence for failing to return his taxes. Snipes has spent the last two years appealing against his conviction and recently lost an appeal and retrial request.

Earlier in the year, Snipes' lawyers claimed that they had received an email from an anonymous member of the jury, who alleged that three other jurors had already made their mind up before the trial had even started.

The judge on the case rejected the defence's request to interview the juror, but a news team tracked down the juror and obtained a statement from him detailing  the jury misconduct.

The statement read: "There was one juror that had said they knew Mr. Snipes was guilty when they first saw him during jury selection. Two other jurors then agreed and said that they thought he was guilty when they first saw him before the trial began.

It continued: "We were deadlocked on our decision about Mr. Snipes before this happened. I was not expecting to hear that from a juror and most of the jurors felt the same. That's when a deal was made to find him, Mr. Snipes, guilty on the failure to file taxes and not guilty on the federal tax evasion charges. We did not think he would go to jail."

The defence team have jumped on the latest revelations, pushing that the confession is enough to sanction a retrial, according to TMZ.com

The case will be reviewed by a judge in Ocala, Florida, but it may be too late for Snipes as his deadline to keep him out of prison looms.

Female First Chris Mayer