Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: jury's verdict

If the jury finds the defendant not guilty, that is the final word and nothing can be done about it.

A judge can overrule a guilty verdict if she believes that the prosecution's evidence was not sufficient as a matter of law to prove the charges, but when the evidence is that weak the judge usually acts before the case goes to the jury; after all, when the evidence is insufficient to support the charge there's no point having the jury deal with it. Defense counsel often asks the court to enter a not guilty verdict as soon as the prosecution rests its case, contending that there isn't enough evidence to support the charges. These motions don't succeed very often, but setting aside a jury verdict happens even less often.

Note that judges can't do this just because they see the facts differently; decisions about the facts are solely the jury's to make. The judge can only do this where a conviction would be legally improper.

Judge's can make this decision on their own, or they can do so in response to a motion by the defendant. Many defendants make such motions, but they are almost always denied.

The procedures I described here apply to criminal cases; the answer would be somewhat different if you had asked about civil cases.