05/02/14 STATE VS. DORSAINVIL A-0879-10T2
After a jury
trial, defendant was convicted of first degree conspiracy to commit
murder, second degree aggravated assault, and related second and third
degree offenses. On the second day of deliberations, the jury reported
it was "hopelessly deadlocked." Immediately following the jury's report
of an inability to reach a unanimous verdict, sheriff's officers
intervened at the jury's request to dissolve a physical altercation
between two jurors. The trial court denied defendant's motion for a
mistrial.
We reverse. A physical altercation between two or more deliberating jurors constitutes an irreparable breakdown in the civility and decorum expected to dominate the deliberative process envisioned by the Court in State v. Czachor, 82 N.J. 392 (1980). A jury verdict so tainted cannot
stand as a matter of law. The trial judge's supplemental instructions
to restore order exacerbated the problem by imposing a judicially
crafted civility code of conduct that placed the judge at the center of
jury deliberations in violation of State v. Figueroa, 190 N.J.
219 (2007).
No comments:
Post a Comment