Opinion ID: 2078506
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Instructions to Deadlocked Jury

Text: The jury deliberated for two and one-half hours before its foreman advised the court it had been unable to reach a verdict. The court ordered the jury to continue its deliberations, and it returned one hour later with its guilty verdicts. Cavendish claims the court committed reversible error because it ordered the jury to return to deliberations without rereading the final instructions. Cavendish is correct that the proper procedure when a jury is deadlocked and is ordered to continue deliberations is for the court to reread the instructions in full. Lewis v. State (1981), Ind., 424 N.E.2d 107. The purpose of the procedure recommended in Lewis is to avoid the mischief sometimes caused by a court which, instead of simply recharging the deadlocked jury, instructs it in a way which unfairly influences the deliberative process. Lowry v. State (1982), Ind., 440 N.E.2d 1123. Here, however, it does not appear that anything in the court's response to the jury could have influenced its deliberations; the court simply ordered the jury to continue. Cavendish was not harmed. Id.