Legal Question in Criminal Law in Montana

Questioning Judges Rights and Power

During a jury trial and during the jury's deliberation process, if the jurors inform the judge that they can not make a unanimous decision and they are split on the guilty/innocent verdict, can the judge insist that a unanimous decision be reached? In the instance of which I am speaking, the above scenario happened and the jurors then returned to the deliberation room and soon thereafter found the defendant guilty, even though they had previously informed the judge that they were at a stalemate. One of the jurors approached the defendant before the verdict was read, and proceeded to apologize to him, saying they, the jurors, didnt know they could have a hung jury. Explained they felt forced to make a unanimous decision and that they didnt fully understand the process. Did the judge have the right to insist on a unanimous decision, after the juror first told them they couldnt go any further due to being split on the verdict?


Asked on 4/25/04, 10:53 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Mark Sullivan Mark R. Sullivan - Attorney at Law

Re: Questioning Judges Rights and Power

There is a specific instruction that judges give juries when they seem to be deadlocked. That instruction does not require them to return a verdict. That instruction is not an insistence that the jurors return a verdict. If the jurors misunderstood that, the result you speak of could have happened. If this was a District Court case there is a record of what the judge told the jury. It may not be as you remember it. Jurors are never told, except in closing arguments by defense attorneys, that they can come back with no verdict, in other words that they do not have to reach a verdict. The judge will always tell them to go back and continue deliberating at least once before a mistrial (hung jury) is declared. Sometimes jurors take the easy way out and go with the majority to get it over with. Most times jurors with strong convictions stick to their guns.

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Answered on 4/26/04, 4:21 pm


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