Jury deadlocked over Hamlet's mock murder trial

LOS ANGELES — A notorious criminal case that waited 400 years to go before a jury resulted in no definite answer to the question of whether the defendant — Hamlet Prince of Denmark — was sane when he committed murder.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy presided over a mock trial Monday at the University of Southern California.

It gave noted Los Angeles attorneys an opportunity to argue for and against the proposition that Hamlet was suffering from a mental disease when he stabbed Polonius, the adviser to the king in the classic Shakespeare play.

After 20 minutes of deliberations, 10 jurors found him sane and two found him insane.