PROCEDURES IN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM, 8 th ed. Roberson, Wallace, and Stuckey PRENTICE HALL ©2007 Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ Chapter 14 Instructions and Deliberation of the Jury This chapter examines Trial judge’s duties to instruct the jury Allen charge Duties of foreperson Hung jury Deliberations Less than unanimous verdicts Duties of prosecutor and defense in preparing jury instructions

PROCEDURES IN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM, 8 th ed. Roberson, Wallace, and Stuckey PRENTICE HALL ©2007 Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ Instructions to Jury Also known as charging the jury Responsibility of trial judge Counsel submit recommended instructions Failure to object to instructions may prevent counsel from assigning error on appeal

PROCEDURES IN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM, 8 th ed. Roberson, Wallace, and Stuckey PRENTICE HALL ©2007 Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ Comments by the Judge on the Evidence Some states permit the trial judge to comment on the status of the evidence, others do not. Improper for judge to indicate that he or she believes that the defendant is guilty. Any comments by the judge must be directed to help the jury understand the instructions and the evidence.

PROCEDURES IN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM, 8 th ed. Roberson, Wallace, and Stuckey PRENTICE HALL ©2007 Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ Deliberations Jury may not begin to deliberate until they have received instructions from the trial judge and retired to deliberation room. Only jury members should be present in the room during deliberation. Jury will select one of their own to act as foreperson Jury may take with them to the deliberation room all evidence admitted into evidence. States differ as to whether juror members may take their notes into the deliberation room.

PROCEDURES IN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM, 8 th ed. Roberson, Wallace, and Stuckey PRENTICE HALL ©2007 Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ Hung Jury Jury can not reach a unanimous decision If less than unanimous verdict required, the jury cannot get the required number of jurors to agree on the verdict Defendant generally may be retried when the judge declares a hung jury Allen charge to prevent a hung jury

PROCEDURES IN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM, 8 th ed. Roberson, Wallace, and Stuckey PRENTICE HALL ©2007 Pearson Education, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ Less-Than-Unanimous Verdicts Apodaca v. Oregon approved less than unanimous verdicts in non-capital cases Burch v. Louisiana—with a six person jury, verdict must be unanimous