Opinion ID: 1540460
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Seating of Alternate Penalty Phase Juror & Instruction to Deliberate Anew

Text: Just prior to the start of the penalty phase, the trial court received a doctor's note indicating that one juror, Mr. Sessler, was very nervous and had health problems that might worsen if he continued to serve on the jury. Without objection from counsel, the trial court discharged the juror. The court convened the jury to start the penalty phase, and told the remaining fourteen jurors (one had already been excused during the guilt phase when he recognized that an expert witness was a family doctor) that Mr. Sessler had been released and that at the close of the penalty phase one of the three alternates would join the eleven remaining guilt phase jurors in penalty phase deliberations. As part of her motion for a new trial on January 3, 1985, defendant argued that the trial court committed reversible error by failing to instruct the jury that it had a duty to deliberate anew on the guilt phase charges with the alternate juror. The trial court rejected this argument, finding no evidence of prejudice to defendant. On appeal, defendant raises the same argument, claiming that the trial court's failure to instruct the jury to deliberate anew constitutes plain error. Defendant reads State v. Trent, 79 N.J. 251 (1979), to require the trial court to give such an instruction whenever a juror is substituted during deliberations. Moore claims that the alternate was substituted during deliberations because the guilt phase and penalty phase deliberations were linked, given the recognized impact of lingering doubt concerning a defendant's guilt in penalty phase deliberations, see Ramseur, 106 N.J. at 254, and the fact that guilt phase evidence was used in the penalty phase. The State argues that defendant's claim fails because no objection was made by trial counsel, and that prejudice, if any resulted, was sustained by the prosecution because the alternate juror selected might have had reasonable doubt concerning murder, unlike the twelve who voted to convict, and so could have brought that doubt in as a new juror and voted for a life verdict. This argument was adopted by the trial court in rejecting the motion. The State argues further that penalty-phase deliberations are separate from the guilt phase, thus distinguishing Trent. Further, the State points out that a 1985 amendment to N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(1), which was not in place at the time of trial, expressly authorizes this kind of substitution without requiring any instructions. The Attorney General as amicus argues the same points, but adds that the court must find the failure to instruct to be plain error because it was not objected to at trial. We find no error, plain or otherwise, in the trial court's failure to instruct the jury to deliberate anew upon seating an alternate juror for the penalty phase proceeding. We are not persuaded that State v. Trent is dispositive in the instant case. In fact, we find that that case is readily distinguishable. There, an alternate juror replaced a juror who fell ill during the jury's deliberations. We held, per Justice Clifford, that the trial court's failure to instruct the jury to begin deliberating again and to disregard prior deliberations constituted reversible error. This Court reasoned `that a defendant may not be convicted except by 12 jurors who have heard all the evidence and argument and who together have deliberated to unanimity.' 79 N.J. at 256 (quoting People v. Collins, 17 Cal. 3d 687, 689, 131 Cal. Rptr. 782, 786, 552 P. 2d 742, 746 (1976), cert. den., 429 U.S. 1077, 97 S.Ct. 820, 50 L.Ed. 2d 796 (1977)); see also State v. Corsaro, 107 N.J. 339 (1987) (juror substitution after partial verdict returned constituted plain error requiring reversal of convictions on open charges arrived at after substitution of juror). In the instant case, Mr. Sessler was not replaced until after the jury had considered and reached a determination regarding all the various charges brought against defendant. Defendant's argument that the guilt and penalty phases are linked such that a final verdict in the guilt phase should be disregarded if a juror takes ill is not persuasive in light of the statute's bifurcation of guilt and penalty phases. Prior to the 1985 amendment, N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(1) provided that there would be a separate sentencing procedure conducted by the jury that determined guilt or innocence, except that, for good cause, the court may discharge that jury and conduct the proceeding before a jury empaneled for the purpose of the proceeding. This provision shows that a divided process was intended by the Legislature, in which even separate juries could, for good cause, try the guilt and penalty phases. This legislative purpose is not consistent with defendant's argument that the substitution occurred during deliberations, because the split between guilt and penalty phase determinations shows the two were and are separate. Thus, there is no need to instruct the jury to begin deliberations anew under Trent or under the statute. The 1985 amendment to N.J.S.A. 2C:11-3c(1) offers further support for the State's position because it explicitly authorizes the type of substitution made in the instant case without even mentioning that deliberations should begin again. The amendment adds to this subsection the following provision: Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to prevent the participation of an alternate juror in the sentencing proceeding if one of the jurors who rendered the guilty verdict becomes ill or is otherwise unable to proceed before or during the sentencing proceeding. The defendant's claim that the guilt phase and penalty phase deliberations are not distinctive is weakened further by this court's decision in Biegenwald. There, we held that re-sentencing was proper using a newly selected jury, and distinguished precedent under the prior capital murder statute, particularly State v. Laws, 51 N.J. 494, cert. den., 393 U.S. 971, 89 S.Ct. 408, 21 L.Ed. 2d 384 (1968), which had rejected re-sentencing on penalty alone, stating: Because Laws was decided under a unitary trial statute and because the Laws Court's major misgiving about a separate trial on the issue of penalty  the foreignness of bifurcation  has been removed, Laws is not controlling precedent for the present case. [106 N.J. at 69-70.] Thus, the Biegenwald court, as well as the Ramseur court, recognized that the capital murder statute set up a bifurcated system in which guilt and penalty phases are separate. Because neither the relevant case law nor the capital murder statute itself supports defendant's position, we find no error in the trial court's failure to instruct the jury to deliberate anew.