Jurors failed to follow a federal judge&#8217;s instructions when they convicted five defendants in the deaths of six Kansas City firefighters in a massive 1988 explosion.</p><p>One juror told The Kansas City Star that he and others might have voted to find at least one of the defendants, Darlene Edwards, not guilty &#8212; if the jury had believed it could return different verdicts for each defendant.</p><p>Instead, the jury voted only once to convict all five defendants. Frank, Skip and Bryan Sheppard, Richard Brown and Edwards now are serving life sentences in federal prisons. All have maintained their innocence.</p><p>The jury&#8217;s failure to consider and vote separately on the five defendants probably would not help reopen their case, defense attorneys said. But they added that it is significant in other ways.</p><p>&#8220;It is outrageous that this happened,&#8221; said Randolph Jonakait, a professor at New York Law School. &#8220;But I wouldn&#8217;t blame a jury for this, I would blame the fact that all the defendants were tried together, and there obviously was a spillover effect.&#8221;</p><p>The complexity of jury instructions also is a common problem, Jonakait said, adding that is precisely why many state courts do not try groups of defendants together, as federal courts tend to do.</p><p>According to court records, U.S. District Judge Joseph Stevens told jurors in the 1997 trial that &#8220;you must give separate consideration to the evidence about each individual defendant. Each defendant is entitled to be treated separately&#8230;&#8221;</p><p>But The Star&#8217;s investigation found that jurors apparently misunderstood those instructions.</p><p>&#8220;The judge told us they&#8217;re not going to be separated,&#8221; said one of the 12 jurors, who asked not to be identified because of concerns about personal safety. &#8220;What one gets, they all get.&#8221;</p><p>Added another juror: &#8220;We took one vote on all of them and didn&#8217;t consider them separately.&#8221;</p><p>Court Deputy Tenilla Sheehan also told the newspaper that her understanding was that the jury didn&#8217;t vote separately on each defendant&#8217;s guilt or innocence. The duties of Sheehan, who now is retired, included sitting outside the jury room during deliberations. She said she overheard the vote.</p><p>&#8220;That poor Darlene Edwards,&#8221; Sheehan said of one of the defendants. &#8220;I think all she did was give some people a ride, at most, and she got life in jail. It (the trial) was my worst experience in the whole time I worked in the courthouse and I worked there 30 years.&#8221;</p><p>Edwards&#8217; attorney Will Bunch said, &#8220;If Darlene Edwards&#8217; guilt or innocence was not impartially considered, then it has not been truly considered.&#8221;</p><p>Edwards, who is serving time at a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, said that &#8220;this whole thing was a total miscarriage of justice. &#8230; I do wish now that people would listen better so that another family won&#8217;t have to go through this.&#8221;</p><p>The Star attempted to contact all 12 jurors. One is deceased. But the newspaper interviewed six of the remaining 11, including the jury foreman. Other jurors did not return calls and two could not be located.</p><p>Three of the six jurors interviewed confirmed that they took only one vote for all five defendants. The three others could not recall the voting or declined to discuss it. The jury foreman also said he does not remember whether jurors were told to consider each defendant separately.</p><p>&#8220;It was so long ago that I do not remember what instructions were given either verbally or in writing,&#8221; the jury foreman said. &#8220;I hope the right people are in jail. I think they did it; it&#8217;s hard to say.&#8221;