Opinion ID: 2159212
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Jury Unanimity Unnecessary to Find a Mitigating Factor

Text: The trial court instructed the jury that it had to agree unanimously about the existence or non-existence of a mitigating factor. [12] The verdict sheet likewise indicated that the jury had to be unanimous on the question of the existence of mitigating factors. In State v. Bey II, 112 N.J. 123 (1988), we held that a jury need not agree unanimously regarding the existence of a mitigating factor. See also Mills v. Maryland, ___ U.S. ___, 108 S.Ct. 1860, 100 L.Ed. 2d 384 (1988) (trial court erred in penalty phase charge by requiring jury be unanimous in order to find mitigating factor). For the reasons expressed in Bey II, the trial court's mitigating-factor instruction compels us to vacate the defendant's death penalty and remand the case for a new sentence proceeding. However, we do not find these instructions to have the same effect as the supplemental instructions in State v. Ramseur, supra, 106 N.J. at 304-15, where we found they deprived defendant of a permissible deadlocked jury and, by statute, a verdict other than death. Instead, on remand the trial court should instruct the jury in accordance with State v. Bey II.