Opinion ID: 2183683
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Allen Charge Following Judge/Juror Contact

Text: Desmond argues that the Allen charge to the jury, following the trial judge's ex parte communications with Juror No. 7, was coercive and constituted reversible error. The State acknowledges that the ex parte communications constituted error. According to the State, however, the error was harmless and did not make the subsequent Allen charge coercive. This Court has traditionally examined allegations that an Allen charge was coercive by focusing upon four factors. Streitfeld v. State, Del.Supr., 369 A.2d 674 (1977). Streitfeld directs this Court to consider (1) the timing of the instruction, (2) the words used in the instruction, (3) the length of the deliberations both before and after the instruction, and (4) the complexity of the case. Id. at 677. See also Boatson, Del.Supr., 457 A.2d 738, 743 (1983). Accordingly, we will consider the facts relevant to this claim of error. The first critical fact, with respect to the timing of the Allen charge in this case, is that it followed the trial judge's unrecorded private ex parte communications with Juror No. 7. The leading Delaware case on the subject of communications with a juror during the course of deliberations is McCloskey v. State, Del.Supr., 457 A.2d 332 (1983). In McCloskey, both a forewoman and another juror communicated separately with the trial judge and counsel in camera. Even though that communication was not ex parte, but in the presence of counsel and on the record, this Court concluded the defendant had shown a reasonable probability of unlawful intimidation of a juror and, therefore, reversible error. This Court has held that one of the essential features of the right to trial by jury is the inviolability of its deliberative process. Claudio v. State, Del.Supr., 585 A.2d 1278, 1301 (1991). In McCloskey, this Court explained that most juror questions should be addressed through written notes. McCloskey v. State, 457 A.2d at 338 n. 8. Private interviews increase the likelihood of prejudice based upon perceived privileged or special access. Id. The meetings between the judge and Juror No. 7 in this case are disconcerting given this Court's prospective guidance in McCloskey. The potentially prejudicial circumstances of the private meetings in the case sub judice are exacerbated because the meetings were ex parte, without the consent of counsel, and unrecorded. The United States Supreme Court has summarized the problems inherent in unrecorded private ex parte communications between a trial judge and juror: First, it is difficult to contain, much less to anticipate, the direction the conversation will take at such a meeting.... Second, any occasion which leads to communication with the whole jury panel through one juror inevitably risks innocent misstatements of the law and misinterpretations despite the undisputed good faith of the participants.... Finally, the absence of counsel from the meeting and the unavailability of a transcript or full report of the meeting aggravate the problems of having one juror serve as a conduit for communicating instructions to the whole panel. United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 438 U.S. 422, 460-61, 98 S.Ct. 2864, 2885, 57 L.Ed.2d 854 (1978). The second critical fact, with respect to the timing of the Allen charge in this case, is it occurred after Juror No. 7 privately reported to the trial judge that the jury was divided 11-1 and that she alone declined to find Desmond guilty. It is per se reversible error for a trial judge to inquire as to a jury's numerical division. Brasfield v. United States, 272 U.S. 448, 450, 47 S.Ct. 135, 135, 71 L.Ed. 345 (1926). Brasfield is not implicated, however, where a jury note indicates their numerical division without prompting from the court. United States v. Parsons, 993 F.2d 38, 41-42 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 114 S.Ct. 266, 126 L.Ed.2d 218 (1993). [9] Nevertheless, the trial judge's obligation to avoid coercion is heightened under such circumstances. Accordingly, this Court must next carefully consider the actual language used in the Allen charge given to Desmond's jury. This Court has held the Allen charge, or dynamite charge, is proper when the total effect of the charge is not overly coercive and the jurors are admonished not to surrender their honest convictions. Brown v. State, Del. Supr., 369 A.2d 682 (1976). See also Allen v. United States, 164 U.S. 492, 17 S.Ct. 154, 41 L.Ed. 528 (1896). In United States v. Ajiboye, 961 F.2d 892, 894 (9th Cir.1992), for example, the court held it reversible error for a trial judge, if inadvertently told of the jury's numerical division, to give an Allen charge in a way that a holdout juror could interpret as being addressed directly to him or her. Conversely, [w]here the jury has disclosed the split voluntarily and the instruction has not focused on the minority, courts have generally upheld a supplemental charge. United States v. Lash, 937 F.2d 1077, 1086 (6th Cir.1991) cert. denied, 502 U.S. 1061, 112 S.Ct. 943, 117 L.Ed.2d 113 (1992). In Desmond's case, the Allen instruction was complete and evenly balanced. In fact, it was a paragon of objective guidance for how a jury should resume its deliberations in a rational manner and with detached reflection for the views of others. Finally, this Court must consider the events following the Allen charge. In this case, the jury deliberated for an hour and one-half before recessing for a three-day weekend. When the jury returned, it deliberated for several hours. Eventually, the jury was able to reach unanimous verdicts on twenty-nine counts and concluded it could not reach unanimous verdicts on the nine remaining counts. An appellate court is required to consider all of the circumstances when determining whether the use of the Allen charge was coercive. Lowenfield v. Phelps, 484 U.S. 231, 237, 108 S.Ct. 546, 550, 98 L.Ed.2d 568 (1988); Jenkins v. United States, 380 U.S. 445, 446, 85 S.Ct. 1059, 1060, 13 L.Ed.2d 957 (1965). Boatson v. State, Del.Supr., 457 A.2d 738, 744 (1983); Streitfeld v. State, Del.Supr., 369 A.2d 674, 677 (1977). An Allen -type charge has not been found coercive, even though the judge was aware of the numerical division in the jury, when the charge instructed both the minority and the majority to reconsider their positions without abandoning their oaths. United States v. Lash, 937 F.2d at 1086. The totality of the following circumstances in Desmond's case leads to the conclusion that the Allen charge was not coercive: the seemingly innocuous nature of the ex parte communications that Juror No. 7 initiated; the unprompted nature of Juror No. 7's disclosure of the numerical division among the jury; the trial judge's immediate discontinuance of the meeting upon such disclosure; the Allen charge's text, which paralleled the model instruction; the length of the jury's deliberations before and after the Allen charge was given; and the jury's return of a mixed verdict, after a three day suspension and several additional hours of deliberation. Under these circumstances, even though the trial judge's private, unrecorded, ex parte meeting with Juror No. 7 constituted error, such error did not make the subsequent Allen charge coercive and, therefore, was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See, e.g., Rushen v. Spain, 464 U.S. 114, 117 n. 2, 120, 104 S.Ct. 453, 455 n. 2, 456, 78 L.Ed.2d 267 (1983); United States v. Lash, 937 F.2d at 1085-86; United States v. Frazin, 780 F.2d 1461, 1470 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 844, 107 S.Ct. 158, 93 L.Ed.2d 98 (1986). But see United States v. Sae-Chua, 725 F.2d 530 (9th Cir.1984); United States v. Seawell, 550 F.2d 1159 (9th Cir.1977).