Opinion ID: 2113802
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Anti-deadlock Instruction

Text: The appellant's second contention is that the trial court coerced the jury into issuing a verdict by giving multiple anti-deadlock instructions. This argument is without merit. The facts underlying this issue are as follows. On Friday, after the jury had deliberated for about six hours, it sent a note stating that it had reached an impasse. The trial judge elected not to give an anti-deadlock instruction at that time, but instead simply informed the jury that it was too early to declare them at an impasse, that they should go home for the weekend and that they should resume their deliberations on Monday. On Monday, the jury deliberated until about 3:00 p.m., when it sent a second note indicating that they were still unable to reach a unanimous verdict. The appellant moved for a mistrial or, in the alternative, for the Gallagher anti-deadlock instruction. [6] The court gave the Gallagher instruction and, as with all of the jury instructions, put the instruction on tape and told the jurors that they could play the instruction if they forgot any part of it. On Tuesday nothing was heard from the jury all day. Thus, they were brought out and told to return on Wednesday. At 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday, the court received a note from the foreperson that read: Your honor, we the members of the jury have reached a verdict. The appellant argues that the first instruction to resume deliberating constituted an anti-deadlock instruction, and, therefore, that the subsequent Gallagher instruction constituted an impermissible second anti-deadlock instruction. Moreover, he argues, providing the second instruction on an audiotape amplified the coercive effect of the second instruction. Whether to give an anti-deadlock instruction is committed to the sound discretion of the trial court. Carey v. United States, 647 A.2d 56, 61 (D.C.1994). The determination of whether coercion exists in a particular case is made by considering the coercive potential of the situation from the jurors' perspective and the effect of the actions of the trial judge in exacerbating or alleviating potential coercion. Davis v. United States, 700 A.2d 229, 230 (D.C.1997) (citing Harris v. United States, 622 A.2d 697, 701-02 (D.C. 1993)). Furthermore, the `anti-deadlock' instruction should not repeatedly be given to a `hung jury'.... Epperson v. United States, 495 A.2d 1170, 1176 (D.C.1985) ( Epperson II ). Where, as here, the defendant fails to object at trial, our review is for plain error. Olano, supra, 507 U.S. at 732-36, 113 S.Ct. 1770. We find no error, let alone plain error in giving the Gallagher anti-deadlock instruction. The appellant correctly asserts that an anti-deadlock instruction should be given only once. Epperson v. United States, 471 A.2d 1016, 1017 (D.C.1984) ([T]o twice give [an anti-deadlock instruction] crosses the line into the forbidden area of verdict coercion.). We have specifically held, however, that the course followed by the trial court here is within a trial court's discretion. See Carey, supra, 647 A.2d at 60-61 (holding that the trial court had not abused its discretion in first telling a jury to continue deliberating after receiving a note, then later giving an anti-deadlock instruction after receiving a second note, following which the jury reached a verdict). The appellant argues that because the trial court's first instruction to resume deliberations constituted an anti-deadlock instruction, the Gallagher anti-deadlock instruction was a second, coercive instruction. However, as we made clear in Epperson II, the admonition to give no more than one anti-deadlock instruction applies only to juries determined by the trial court to actually be deadlocked or hung, which we made clear meant a jury that the trial judge has concluded is deadlocked, giving due consideration to such things as the nature and complexity of the trial issues, the duration of the trial and the length of jury deliberations.... Epperson II, supra, 495 A.2d at 1172. There is no indication that the trial court had reached a conclusion that the jury here was hung on that first day of deliberations, nor that it should have. Issued on the first day of deliberations, the first instruction was merely an instruction to continue deliberating. It included no coercive language of the sort we have called a temperate prod by the trial judge for a conscientious attempt at a verdict. Winters, supra, 317 A.2d at 539 (Gallagher, J., concurring). As such, appellant's claim that the trial court's instructionit is too early for me to tell you anything, but resume your deliberationsconstitutes the first of two anti-deadlock instructions is not supported by the record. Moreover, not only did the jury deliberate for over a day after being given the Gallagher instruction, but we have explicitly upheld in Carey the procedure employed by the trial judge here, despite stronger evidence in that case that the jury was actually hung. See Carey, supra, 647 A.2d at 60 (noting that the second note sent by the jury read, Your Honor, some of us are ready to change our opinion just to get out of this room. Is this what you want? Is this perjury? What sort of heroism do you expect?). As such, the trial judge's actions in this case do not constitute plain error, and there is no evidence of a coerced verdict. Nor do we find error in the trial court's decision to provide the jury with an audiotape of the anti-deadlock instruction just as he had done with his other instructions. In general, the decision to provide the jury with a copy of the jury instructions is within the discretion of the trial court. See, e.g., Smith v. United States, 454 A.2d 822, 826 (D.C.1983) (citing Carrado v. United States, 93 U.S.App.D.C. 183, 193, 210 F.2d 712, 722-23 (1953), cert. denied, 347 U.S. 1020, 74 S.Ct. 876, 98 L.Ed. 1141 (1954)). [7] We have likewise found it permissible to provide a copy of an anti-deadlock instruction to the jury. For example, in Davis v. United States, 700 A.2d 229, 231 (D.C.1997), we held that the court did not err by sending a written copy of an anti-deadlock instruction to the jury. We reasoned that it is the repetition of an anti-deadlock instruction by the court which creates unacceptable coercion, not the ability of the jury to choose, by its own volition, to read it again. Id. (discussing Epperson II, supra, 495 A.2d). [8] As in Davis, here the trial court provided the anti-deadlock instruction to the jury so that they could review it if they chose. The fact that the instruction was provided on an audiotape has little bearing on its coercive potential. Consequently, we reject the suggestion that the trial court's actions constitute impermissible repetition of the anti-deadlock instruction, or amplification of the coercive force (gentle as that was) of the original Gallagher instruction.