Opinion ID: 1189762
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Jury Unanimity Requirement

Text: Powell argues that his constitutional right to a unanimous jury verdict was violated. Utah Const. art. I, § 10. He asserts that the trial court improperly failed to instruct the jury that it must be unanimous in its determination as to which of the alternative theories of second degree murder had been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. As to this issue, State v. Russell, 733 P.2d 162 (Utah 1987), is controlling. In that case, the defendant shot two of his neighbors during a discussion in which he accused their son of taking indecent liberties with his five-year-old daughter. He was convicted of second degree murder under Utah Code Ann. § 76-5-203. A jury instruction listed the three separate alternative elements of second degree murder: (1) intentionally or knowingly causing the death of another; (2) causing death while intending to cause serious bodily injury; or (3) depraved indifference murder. Id. at 164. We concluded that the right to a unanimous jury verdict did not include a right to a unanimous decision as to the particular alternative under the single crime of second degree murder: The decisions are virtually unanimous that a defendant is not entitled to a unanimous verdict on the precise manner in which the crime was committed, or by which of several alternative methods or modes, or under which interpretation of the evidence so long as there is substantial evidence to support each of the methods, modes, or manners charged. Id. at 165. In the present case, the State charged two of the first three alternatives under second degree murder: (1) that Powell acted knowingly or intentionally; or (2) that Powell acted under circumstances that evidenced a depraved indifference to human life. As in Russell, we now conclude that it was not error for the trial court to omit an instruction requiring the jury to unanimously agree on one of the two alternatives.