Opinion ID: 1442323
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Jury's Renewed Deliberations

Text: After deliberating over penalty for six days, one juror was injured and replaced by an alternate juror. The court instructed the jury to set aside and disregard its prior deliberations and recommence them with the alternate juror present. (30) Defendant asked the court to examine the jurors as to their ability to set aside their prior deliberations. The court denied the motion, stating its assumption the jury would be able to follow the foregoing instructions (citing People v. Collins (1976) 17 Cal.3d 687, 694 [131 Cal. Rptr. 782, 552 P.2d 742]), and observing that voir dire on the subject might be seem by the jurors as coercive. In Collins, we rejected the contention that a mistrial must be declared whenever the jury's deliberations were interrupted by dismissal of a juror for cause, providing an alternate juror is available as a substitute, and the jury is instructed to set aside and disregard all past deliberations and begin deliberating anew. (17 Cal.3d 687, 694.) We stated that We are confident that juries made aware of the rights involved will faithfully follow such instructions. ( Ibid., fn. omitted.) It is clear that the court followed Collins's ( supra, 17 Cal.3d 687) prophylactic procedures and gave the instructions we recommended in that case. Indeed, the court even required the new jury to pick a different foreperson. Defendant, disputing that Collins and the cautionary instructions it prescribed adequately protected his right to jury trial untainted by any prior deliberations, asserts the trial court abused its discretion in failing to conduct voir dire examination of each juror. Collins does not require such a procedure, and we see no basis for reconsidering our decision in that case. Defendant also asserts the court erred in allowing some jurors, over his objection, to retain notes taken prior to the interrupted deliberations. The record indicates, however, that these notes did not involve the jury's deliberations. In one case, they summarized trial testimony, while in another they reflected the private, uncommunicated thoughts of a juror, made while he was at home. Defendant speculates that the possibility exists that outside influences, e.g., consultation of a dictionary for interpretation of legal terms, entered the jury room. Such speculation cannot form the basis for a successful attack on the verdict or judgment. As the People observe, a juror's thinking process necessarily continues outside the jury room. We see nothing improper in allowing a juror to reduce his thoughts to writing, and privately to consult those notes during deliberations.