Case Title: Ex Parte McKinney

Citation: 567 So. 2d 877

Docket Number: 

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 1990-09-07T00:00:00Z

Document:
567 So. 2d 877 (1990)
Ex parte James Anthony McKINNEY.
(Re John Anthony McKinney v. State).[1]
89-1334.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
September 7, 1990.
Selma L.D. Smith, Mobile, for petitioner.
Don Siegelman, Atty. Gen., for respondent.
PER CURIAM.
The petition for a writ of certiorari is hereby denied. In denying the writ, we do not mean to be understood to be agreeing with the reasoning employed by the Court of Criminal Appeals in affirming the trial court's entry of a mistrial in the first jury trial in this action. In its opinion, the Court of Criminal Appeals held that a declaration of a mistrial in the first trial was necessary because the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict, and, therefore, it held that the petitioner had not been placed in former jeopardy by the first trial. McKinney v. State, 567 So. 2d 870 (Ala.Crim.App. 1990). A careful review of the portion of the trial court record that appears in the Court of Criminal Appeals' opinion, however, reveals that the trial court declared a *878 mistrial in the first jury trial not because the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, but because one of the jurors was not qualified to be a juror under Ala.Code 1975, § 12-16-60.
Section 12-16-60(a) states in pertinent part:
(Emphasis added.)
The trial court's reasoning in declaring a mistrial is evident from a reading of the following portion of the record as set out in the Court of Criminal Appeals' opinion:
Manifest necessity must be demonstrated before a mistrial is granted over the objection of the defendant. Ala.Code 1975, § 12-16-233; Woods v. State, 367 So. 2d 982 (Ala.1978). The facts adduced in the Court of Criminal Appeals' opinion demonstrate a manifest necessity to declare a mistrial. See McKinney v. State, supra.
Accordingly, the petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.
WRIT DENIED.
HORNSBY, C.J., and JONES, SHORES, HOUSTON and KENNEDY, JJ., concur.
[1]  The defendant was named as John Anthony McKinney in the Court of Criminal Appeals.