Opinion ID: 2065070
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Denial of the Allen Charge and Grant of Defendant's Motion

Text: The communication to the effect that the jury could not agree, it must be emphasized, was the first indication from the jury that it could not reach a verdict. In deciding to deny the prosecutor's request for an Allen charge and grant defendant's motion, the court stated: The jury did have a request for instructions on the law which was rather brief. Aside from that, we did receive a notice that a verdict was reached at 1:35 and now, approximately three hours later after I had to send the jury back because of the fact that at least one juror disagreed that the jury reached a verdict, the jury has now indicated that they cannot reach a verdict .  While I have never accepted this kind of a note from the jury the first time and have in the past always given an Allen charge on the first note, I just find that the circumstances in this case do warrant the granting of a mistrial at the request of defense counsel . And, defense counsel in this case has requested that I declare this a hung jury and grant a mistrial and I'm going to do it, under the circumstances that we have in this case. Are both sides ready to proceed with trial tomorrow? (Emphasis added.)