POT-SMOKING JUROR IS PUT ON PROBATION

WHEELING, W.Va. -- (AP) -- A former juror who smoked marijuana with three
defendants the night before he helped to convict them in a drug case has
been sentenced to six months of home confinement and two years' probation.

Matthew Smith, 28, pleaded guilty in December to contempt after smoking pot
with the defendants in 1993 during the 3 1/2-week federal trial. The three
were convicted; five others were acquitted.

Smith spoke to one defendant and then to another after retrieving a dollar
bill that the defendant had dropped in the parking lot, prosecutors said.
After closing arguments, Smith and the three defendants got together and
smoked pot.