Opinion ID: 1597411
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Motion for Mistrial or Requiring Further DeliberationIssue 1

Text: Simpson's first argument concerning the issue of juror Cody's alleged recantation is that the trial court erred in not granting his motion for a mistrial or, alternatively, requiring the jurors to deliberate further when juror Cody recanted her verdict. We disagree. To determine whether the trial court erred in not granting Simpson a mistrial, or in not requiring the jurors to deliberate further, it is necessary to determine whether juror Cody had a right to recede from her guilty verdicts more than a week after she entered them, but before the penalty phase commenced. We conclude that she did not. The right of a defendant to poll the jury and the right of a juror to repudiate his or her verdict are derived from common law. As this Court explained in Grant v. State, 33 Fla. 291, 14 So. 757 (1894): By the common-law procedure, then, the verdict of the jury was orally pronounced in open court, then recorded by the clerk, and affirmed by the jury, which was done by that officer saying to them to hearken to their verdict as recorded by the court, and repeating to them what had been taken down for record. At any time before the verdict was recorded the prisoner had the right to have the jury polled, in order to ascertain whether or not the verdict as given was unanimous, and, in the absence of a polling, any member of the jury had the right, sua sponte, to recede from the verdict as agreed on at any time before it was recorded. As the jury had the right to depart from any finding before it was recorded and affirmed by them, the only complete verdict in a case was that recorded by the court. Id. at 759; see also Brutton v. State, 632 So.2d 1080, 1082 (Fla.4th DCA 1994) (The right to recede from a verdict in open court through jury polling emanates from common law. At common law, the verdict was pronounced in open court and affirmed by the jury being asked to `hearken to their verdict.') (quoting Grant, 14 So. at 759). This procedure was formalized in Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure 3.440 and 3.450. Rule 3.440, titled Rendition of Verdict; Reception and Recording, provides: When the jurors have agreed upon a verdict they shall be conducted into the courtroom by the officer having them in charge. The court shall ask the foreperson if an agreement has been reached on a verdict. If the foreperson answers in the affirmative, the judge shall call on the foreperson to deliver the verdict in writing to the clerk. The court may then examine the verdict and correct it as to matters of form with the unanimous consent of the jurors. The clerk shall then read the verdict to the jurors and, unless disagreement is expressed by one or more of them or the jury is polled, the verdict shall be entered of record, and the jurors discharged from the cause. No verdict may be rendered unless all of the trial jurors concur in it. Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.440. Rule 3.450, titled Polling the Jury, provides: On the motion of either the state or the defendant or on its own motion, the court shall cause the jurors to be asked severally if the verdict rendered is their verdict. If a juror dissents, the court must direct that the jury be sent back for further consideration. If there is no dissent the verdict shall be entered of record and the jurors discharged. However, no motion to poll the jury shall be entertained after the jury is discharged or the verdict is recorded. Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.450. Under these rules, juror Cody had no right to recede from her guilty verdict under the circumstances in this case. Because no juror, including juror Cody, expressed disagreement with the verdict and all twelve jurors responded affirmatively when asked whether the verdicts were in fact theirs, the clerk was required to record the verdict. See Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.440. Moreover, because no juror dissented from the guilty verdicts during polling, the trial court was not required to send the jury back for further deliberation, but rather was required to record the verdict. See Fla. R.Crim. P. 3.450. The signed verdict forms, indicating that the verdicts were unanimous, were recorded on January 29, 2007, the same day the verdicts were announced. Under rules 3.440 and 3.450, juror Cody could have receded from her verdicts either after the verdicts were read by the court or when polled, but she did not do so. Simpson incorrectly argues that the crux of this issue is whether the commencement of the penalty phase constitutes discharge of the jurors in a death case for the purpose of evaluating whether they may recede from their guilt phase verdicts. The proper inquiry is whether the verdict was recorded under rules 3.440 and 3.450, not whether the jury was discharged. Further, to the extent Simpson contends that this case is analogous to James v. State, 453 So.2d 786 (Fla.1984), Chung v. State, 641 So.2d 942 (Fla.5th DCA 1994), State v. Thomas, 405 So.2d 220 (Fla.3d DCA 1981), and Masters v. State, 344 So.2d 616 (Fla.1st DCA 1977), we disagree. Chung and Thomas are distinguishable from the instant case because the record indicates juror Cody clearly and unequivocally responded yes when polled, unlike the jurors at issue in Chung and Thomas. Further, we deem James and Masters distinguishable from this case because the issue here is not whether discharge occurred such that the jury could not be reimpaneled to hear matters relating to the same case. The issue is at what point juror Cody was permitted to recede from her guilty verdictsan issue not present in James or Masters. Thus, the trial court did not err in denying Simpson's motion for a mistrial, or in not requiring the jury to deliberate further, because once the guilty verdicts were recorded, the jury's role as to the guilt phase had ended. The only permissible way the trial court could have considered juror Cody's repudiation of her guilty verdicts more than a week after they were announced and recorded as defined in rules 3.440 and 3.450 would be if the conduct giving rise to her decision to recede did not inhere in the verdicts. As explained by this Court in Devoney v. State, 717 So.2d 501 (Fla.1998): Many years ago, this Court established guidelines with respect to the propriety of inquiry into matters occurring in the jury room. We explained [t]hat affidavits of jurors may be received for the purpose of avoiding a verdict, to show any matter occurring during the trial or in the jury room, which does not essentially inhere in the verdict itself, as that a juror was improperly approached by a party, his agent, or attorney; that witnesses or others conversed as to the facts or merits of the cause, out of court and in the presence of jurors; that the verdict was determined by aggregation and average or by lot, or game of chance or other artifice or improper manner; but that such affidavit to avoid the verdict may not be received to show any matter which does essentially inhere in the verdict itself, as that the juror did not assent to the verdict; that he misunderstood the instructions of the Court; the statements of the witnesses or the pleadings in the case; that he was unduly influenced by the statements or otherwise of his fellow-jurors, or mistaken in his calculations or judgment, or other matter resting alone in the juror's breast. Id. at 502 (quoting Marks v. State Road Dep't, 69 So.2d 771, 774-75 (Fla.1954)). In Devoney, this Court further noted that [t]he Florida Evidence Code codifies the sanctity of the jury verdict by providing that `[u]pon an inquiry into the validity of a verdict or indictment, a juror is not competent to testify as to any matter which essentially inheres in the verdict or indictment.' 717 So.2d at 502 (quoting § 90.607(2)(b), Fla. Stat. (1993)). We conclude that the matters giving rise to juror Cody's alleged recantation did inhere in the verdicts, and thus her verdicts were not impeachable. Mitchell v. State, 527 So.2d 179 (Fla.1988), is instructive. There, on direct appeal of his first-degree felony murder conviction and death sentence, Mitchell argued, inter alia, that he should be granted a new trial because one of his jurors averred, in an affidavit a week after trial, that she was pressured into returning a verdict of guilty by one of the other jurors and that other jurors had placed the burden on Mitchell to prove his innocence. Id. at 181. This Court declined to grant Mitchell a new trial, recognizing: It is a well settled rule that a verdict cannot be subsequently impeached by conduct which inheres in the verdict and relates to the jury's deliberations. This principle has also been applied in capital cases. Consequently, we cannot consider the juror's comments as requiring a new trial because all of the activities mentioned involve the jury's deliberations and inhere in the verdict. Id. at 181-82 (citations omitted). The trial court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that juror Cody's expression of confusion arising from other jurors' misstatements of the law was inherent in the verdicts and, therefore, not a permissible method of impeaching those verdicts. Juror Cody unequivocally stated that the reason she voted guilty was because she was confused by other jurors' representations that the jury should consider only the physical evidence and not the testimony presented in the case and that the jury should weigh the physical evidence more heavily than the testimony when reaching a verdict. This is clearly a matter that inheres in the verdict because it involves a claim that jurors misunderstood the instructions of the Court or were unduly influenced by the statements of other jurors. See Devoney, 717 So.2d at 502. Juror Cody did not allege any influence on jury deliberations arising from external sources. See id. at 503 (Those cases which have permitted an attack upon a jury verdict have required allegations of an influence upon the jurors' deliberations arising from external sources.). Further, juror Cody did not allege that there was an express agreement among the jurors to disregard their oaths and instructions. See Baptist Hosp. of Miami Inc. v. Maler, 579 So.2d 97, 100 (Fla.1991) (Any actual, express agreement between two or more jurors to disregard their oaths and instructions constitutes neither subjective impression nor opinion, but an overt act. It thus is subject to judicial inquiry even though that inquiry may not be expanded to ask what impressions or opinions motivated jurors to enter into the agreement in the first instance.). Accordingly, Simpson's claim that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a mistrial or in not requiring the jury to deliberate further is without merit.