Exactly my experience as well. We convicted a thug on beating his wife senseless (in front of his 3 year-old daughter) but even with an ADA who had her case sewn up pretty tightly, we still had one Lee J. Cobb figure on our jury who read his tabloid and said the defendant 'just got outta hand a little.' So it took some persuasion and jury members using things other than evidence to make their argument.

Yeah, I know the legal purists go crazy over what happens in the jury room in this movie (one of my absolute favorites) but the fact is, once the door's closed, anything goes. Guilty/Not Guilt/Hung Jury. That's it. No 'Oh, but we considered things other than the evidence.' Judge will *not* care.