Updated June 22, 2017 14:29:39

Photo: Bill Cosby will be tried again after jurors failed to reach a verdict over the weekend. (Reuters: Charles Mostoller)

Bill Cosby's sexual assault trial ended in a hung jury because two holdouts refused to convict the 79-year-old comedian after 52 hours of tense deliberations, a juror has told US media.

The juror, who spoke to ABC News America on the condition of anonymity, said the jury could not reach a consensus after deadlocking at 10-2 to convict Cosby on the first and third felony counts and 11-1 to acquit on the second count.

Cosby is facing a second trial for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home near Philadelphia in 2004.

The case is the only criminal prosecution to emerge from dozens of similar allegations against him.

Cosby said the encounter with the former director of women's basketball operations at his alma mater, Temple University, was consensual.

The juror who spoke to ABC said that two jury members were "not moving, no matter what" on the first and third counts of aggravated sexual assault, alleging Cosby lacked consent when he penetrated Ms Constand's genitals with his fingers and that he gave her an intoxicant that substantially impaired her and stopped her from resisting.

The juror said all but one juror wanted to acquit Cosby on the other count, alleging Ms Constand was unconscious or semi-conscious at the time and could not give consent.

The juror declined to identify the holdouts or detail how any jury member voted, but said that jurors initially voted overwhelmingly in a non-binding poll to find Cosby not guilty on all counts.

Cramped deliberation room made for tense atmosphere

The jury deadlocked after 30 hours of deliberations and there was no movement after that, the juror said, adding that the tension was heightened by the size of the tiny deliberation room.

"People couldn't even pace," the jury member said.

"They were just literally walking in circles where they were standing because they were losing their minds.

"People would just start crying out of nowhere, we wouldn't even be talking about [the case] and people would just start crying."

One juror punched a wall in frustration, the juror said.

"If we kept going, there was definitely going to be a fight," the juror said.

"They had five sheriff's deputies at the door and they could hear us and they kept coming in because they thought we were already fighting."

Judge granted media's request to publicise jurors' names

ABC published the interview after Judge Steven O'Neill ordered the public release of the jurors' names, granting a request by media organisations.

Judge O'Neill warned jurors not to divulge what fellow jurors said during deliberations.

Bill Cosby's trial has ended in a mistrial due to a hopelessly deadlocked jury, but the circus is likely to be repeated.

One of the six alternate jurors has told a Pittsburgh radio station he would have voted to convict Cosby.

Prosecutors and defence lawyers had argued the jurors' identities should remain secret, saying releasing them would make it more difficult to select a jury in Cosby's second trial.

The original jury was brought across the state from Pittsburgh to Montgomery County, outside Philadelphia, out of concern about the amount of pretrial publicity the case generated.

District Attorney Kevin Steele has already said he will retry Cosby, and Judge O'Neill said he wanted that to happen within four months.

Reuters/AP

Topics: people, courts-and-trials, sexual-offences, arts-and-entertainment, united-states

First posted June 22, 2017 14:01:54