After the jury began deliberating, the trial judge excused a juror, a lone hold out for acquittal, and substituted an alternate juror. The reconstituted jury found defendant guilty as charged. On appeal, the Court of Appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court reverses and holds that if a trial court interrupts the deliberations of a jury and suspends its fact-finding functions to investigate allegations of juror misconduct, its inquiry may not intrude into the deliberative process. Because the trial court dismissed a deliberating juror without sufficient findings to support a conclusion that the allegedly offending juror refused to follow the court s instructions, the defendant s conviction cannot stand.
Judgment is reversed.
Common Sense Alliance v. Davidson, Colorado Secretary of State. CSA challenged that conclusion in the federal district court. Out of that proceeding, these certified questions arose. The threshold question asks whether an organization that was originally formed for another purpose can evolve into an issue committee. The Supreme Court holds that the statutory definition of issue committee is not sufficiently clear to include groups such as CSA that formed for one purpose and then later became active on a ballot question.