Opinion ID: 2070845
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: The Deadlock Instruction in This Case

Text: In keeping with CPL 400.27 (10), the trial judge informed the jury that in the event of deadlock he would sentence defendant himself; that the law required him to sentence [defendant] to life imprisonment, but also to fix a point at which the defendant [would] become eligible for parole; and that the law further required him to fix that point between twenty and twenty-five years for each count. He then provided further clarification to the jury, advising that [i]n other words, on each count I would sentence the defendant to life imprisonment and order that he not become eligible for parole until he had served the minimum term that I fix, a term of between twenty and twenty-five years for each count. The judge next placed what he had just said in the context of the case before the jury. He informed the jurors that he thought it fair to tell them that the six [count]s of first degree murder, and the two counts of first degree attempted murder on which you have convicted the defendant, are precisely the type of crimes that almost always induce a judge to give the maximum sentence permissible. In this case I would have the authority to sentence the defendant, not only to the maximum on each count, but also to make those sentences run consecutively. So, the maximum sentence I could give and would almost certainly impose in this case, would be a sentence of 175 years to life, which means that the defendant would become eligible for parole, but only after he had served 175 years in jail. No rational juror listening to this charge could have harbored any reasonable fear that a deadlock might lead to defendant's eventual release back into the community. Thus, the deadlock instruction delivered in this case simply did not pose the risk of a coerced and unreliable verdict of death that caused us to vacate the death sentence in LaValle. Moreover, the trial judge was clearly empowered to give the charge that he gave. Section 400.27 (10) mandates that the court shall deliver a charge to the jury on any matters appropriate in the circumstances  (emphasis added). Here, the trial judge thought it fair to communicate truthful and accurate information to the jury as to the almost certain[] practical consequences of a deadlock in the circumstances of this case. There was nothing wrong with this; in fact, it is exactly what the trial judge should have done to protect the constitutional rights of a defendant on trial for his life ( see Gregg v Georgia, 428 US 153, 192-193 [1976]; see also California v Ramos, 463 US 992, 1009 [1983]). Defendant contends, however, that the charge amounted to judicial rewriting of the deadlock instruction in contravention of CPL 400.27 (10) and our decision in LaValle. This is incorrect. The trial judge gave the deadlock instruction required by the statute, and then explained its implications to the jury. Nothing in section 400.27 (10) forbids this, and, in this pre- LaValle case, it is commendable that the judge took the extra step to extinguish any possibility of a coercive instruction. If the Legislature had wanted to prevent a trial judge from expanding on the deadlock instruction, it surely could have and would have done so ( compare CPL 400.27 [10], with CPL 300.10 [3] [setting out within quotation marks the exact words that a trial judge must charge without elaboration where a defendant has raised the affirmative defense of lack of criminal responsibility by reason of mental disease or defect]). As for our decision in LaValle, we merely stated there that the Court of Appeals could not craft a new generic deadlock instruction to replace the existing one in CPL 400.27 (10). It perhaps bears repeating that the trial judge here did, in fact, deliver the statutorily required deadlock instruction. I therefore conclude that the deadlock instruction given in this case was not unconstitutionally coercive under the analysis in LaValle. The deadlock instruction was constitutionally applied to defendant.