The jury in the high-profile case of John Edwards, a former presidential candidate for the presidency of the United States, announced that they had reached a verdict in one of the six counts against Edwards but were hopelessly deadlocked on the others.

Earlier in the day, Judge Catherine Eagles ordered the jurors back into deliberation to decide whether or not they can come to a verdict on the remaining counts. After apologising to the jurors Eagles told the them, “I was obviously under the impression you had reached a verdict on all six counts.” One hour later, the jury was back and stated that they had exhausted their discussions.

The third charge against Edwards is whether he had accepted illegal campaign contributions from Rachel “Bunny” Mellon in 2008. He was acquitted of this count.

The trial was focused on the roughly $1 million funneled to Edward’s former aide Andrew Young and his mistress Rielle Hunter. The trial that went on for weeks revealed the sordid details of the sex scandal.

Rachel Mellon, who is 101 years old was not asked to testify. Fred Baron, the other benefactor died in 2008. Before his death, Baron stated that he provided the funds on his own and did not tell Edwards about it. That moneywas funneled to Young. Much of that money was used by Young to pay for construction of his $1.6 million family home.

It was the prosecution’s responsibility in this case to prove that the funds qualified as campaign contributions and if so, that Edwards accepted them with the knowledge that in doing so, he was breaking the law. The prosecution pointed out in court that Edwards knew of the money being funneled to Young and Hunter and that he was aware of the $2,300 legal limit on contributions.

Defense lawyers showed in court however, bank statements showing that much of the $1 million meant to hide Ms. Hunter was spent for other purposes, such as finishing Mr. Young’s million-dollar dream house in Chapel Hill.

When the verdict was read, Edwards choked up before turning to his daughter, Cate, who was in the first row and smiled at her.

“I don’t think God’s through with me. I really believe he thinks there’s still some good things I can do and whatever happens with this legal stuff going forward, what I’m hopeful about is all those kids that I’ve seen, you know in the poorest parts of this country and some of the poorest parts in the world that I can help them,” Edwards said.

Jurors did not talk to the press about their verdict, and the prosecution did not comment as well.