Opinion ID: 854025
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Standard Under Case Law

Text: If the statute is not triggered, jury requests are evaluated under the guidelines established by our case law. In Thomas v. State, 259 Ind. 537, 540, 289 N.E.2d 508, 509 (1972), we adopted § 5.1 of the Standards Relating to Trial by Jury (American Bar Association Project on Standards for Criminal Justice), which now appears with insubstantial changes as Standard 15-4.1 in 3 AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION, STANDARDS FOR CRIMINAL JUSTICE (2d ed.1980). The version adopted in Thomas provided: Materials to jury room. (a) The court in its discretion may permit the jury, upon retiring for deliberation, to take to the jury room a copy of the charges against the defendant and exhibits and writings which have been received in evidence, except depositions. (b) Among the considerations which are appropriate in the exercise of this discretion are:

Thomas, 259 Ind. at 540, 289 N.E.2d at 509. Robinson asserts that these factors apply only to a trial court's decision whether to send exhibits to the jury room when deliberations begin, and not to cases in which the jury request is made during deliberations. Thomas, which originally adopted the ABA Standard, was a case in which exhibits were sent to the jury room at the commencement of deliberations. However, Thomas did not purport to limit itself to exhibits sent to the jury room at the commencement of deliberations, and if the statute is not implicated, the same considerations apply to a request made after deliberations have begun. The ABA rule was adopted to guide judges in deciding which materials should be permitted in the jury room during deliberations. Id. at 541, 289 N.E.2d at 510. Moreover, many of our post- Thomas decisions have applied ABA Standard 15-4.1 to jury requests made after deliberations had begun. See, e.g., Ingram v. State, 547 N.E.2d 823, 828-29 (Ind.1989); Roland v. State, 501 N.E.2d 1034, 1040 (Ind. 1986); Torres v. State, 442 N.E.2d 1021, 1025-26 (Ind.1982); Pearson v. State, 441 N.E.2d 468, 476 (Ind.1982); see also Mitchell v. State, 535 N.E.2d 498, 500-01 (Ind.1989) (finding no abuse of discretion in sending exhibits to the jury room during deliberations after the jury twice indicated it was deadlocked, but never made a request to review exhibits). [5] In deciding whether to send the requested photographs to the jury room in this case, the trial court stated: there's a three (3) prong test whether the material will aid the jury in a proper consideration. I think it will, I mean, none of them have ever been in this house so, they're entitled to a second look. Whether any party will be unduly prejudiced by the submission of the materialwell, I can't even think of prejudice let alone undue prejudice; and, [three], whether the material may be subjected to improper use by the jurythe photos I don't think could be improperly used. Robinson does not allege that the trial court improperly applied these factors to the facts of his case. In fact, he did not even discuss these factors in his post-trial motion to set aside the jury verdict, nor does he allude to their application to the facts of his case in this appeal. We find no error in the trial court's decision to send the photographs to the jury room.