DESPITE THE pandemonium that gripped jury deliberations this week, U.S. District Court Judge James W. Kehoe was correct to resist declaring a mistrial in the Federal corruption case of Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez.
The lengthy proceedings, in their 40th day today, have been a considerable emotional drain both on the community and the defendant. The Government also has paid a heavy financial toll. Sundering the trial at its final, jury-deliberation stage would have been unfair to everyone involved.

Nevertheless, the intolerable contempt for justice that some of the 12 jurors demonstrated this week invites an appeal if Mr. Martinez is convicted. Several of the jurors brazenly ignored the court's orders not to read newspaper accounts of the case or discuss its progress. Others bickered among themselves, allegedly even pressuring several of their peers to vote for conviction.

"We were being browbeaten . . . (and) told how to vote," juror Judith Tomeny, who favors acquittal, angrily complained. Jury forewoman "Maryann (Faust) told me, 'You are going to vote No every time?' " On Thursday, alternate juror Armando Coronel wrote Judge Kehoe a letter characterizing the deliberations as "out of control."

Judge Kehoe subsequently questioned Ms. Tomeny and fellow juror Lavances Wright, who also claims to have been pressured. He asked them whether they felt that they still could be fair. When they answered Yes, he announced that the trial would proceed.

Under the circumstances, many persons probably would wonder why the judge simply doesn't -- indeed, why he didn't -- sequester the jury. The answer is simple: Jury duty already is hardship enough for most persons without also requiring them to sever all ties with their families, jobs, and community for an indefinite length of time. Too many citizens already decline to register to vote because voters are eligible to be called for jury duty. Conscious of that burden, judges usually reserve sequestering for extreme cases wherein it otherwise becomes impossible to guarantee the defendant a fair trial.

That does not yet seem to be the case in Mr. Martinez's trial.