Opinion ID: 2055865
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Coercion in Charging the Jury

Text: The defendant alleges that various remarks to the jury by the trial justice were coercive and prompted compromise and inconsistent verdicts. The record does disclose that the trial justice indicated his desire to complete the trial in time to have the jury home for the Easter holiday. The defendant has translated such references into coercion. We find no justification for the conclusion that the guilty verdicts which are before us here were coerced by the trial justice's remarks. The jury deliberated for nearly three full days before returning its verdicts. The defendant fails to substantiate by his brief in any meaningful way that the verdicts are inconsistent. He does make reference to the fact that Kelley's testimony placed defendants, Fairbrothers and Rossi, in one of the vehicles used as transportation to and from the scene of the crime. He suggests that if the jury believed this testimony, it had no choice but to find these defendants guilty of both conspiracy and murder. However, it would seem that if, as defendant alleges, there is little to link Fairbrothers and Rossi to the alleged crimes, except Kelley's testimony as to their presence in the vehicle, it is quite conceivable that the jury could have believed that the pair was involved in the conspiracy and at the same time believe that their guilt on the murder charge was not established beyond a reasonable doubt. The defendant further contends that the dismissal by the trial justice of the jury before it reached verdicts on all charges was improper. He alleges that the dismissal was another indication of the trial justice's desire to end the trial quickly and that he failed to take precautions necessary to assure himself that the jury was hopelessly deadlocked. We need not consider whether the trial justice abused his discretion in dismissing the jury, despite the fact that it appears from the record that he had ample justification to believe that the jury was stalemated. [7] The defendant is unable to demonstrate any prejudice, since the dismissal of the jury in no way invalidates the guilty verdict which they returned, and defendant was subsequently retried and acquitted of all of the offenses upon which this jury failed to reach verdicts. The authorities to which defendant directs our attention all represent instances where a defendant challenges the validity of a retrial on charges upon which a previous jury had been dismissed before a verdict was reached. Because defendant's claim that the trial justice had acted improperly in dismissing the jury might bar retrial if an abuse of discretion could be established, such a claim in no way constitutes an impediment to the guilty verdict which was reached through full and fair deliberation prior to the dismissal. See United States v. Jorn, 400 U.S. 470, 91 S.Ct. 547, 27 L.Ed.2d 543 (1971) (retrial precluded on double jeopardy grounds); State v. Nelson, 19 R.I. 467, 34 A. 990 (1896).