Opinion ID: 1193813
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Failure to Poll Jury Before Declaring Mistrial

Text: {52} Defendant's next contention is that the Double Jeopardy Clause requires reversal of his felony murder conviction because the jury may have impliedly acquitted him of this offense in his first trial. Defendant's claim of implied acquittal is based on his assertion that the district court violated Rule 5-611 NMRA 1998 by not polling the jury on lesser included offenses before declaring a mistrial. Cf. State v. Castrillo, 90 N.M. 608, 612, 566 P.2d 1146, 1150 (1977) (recognizing that acquittal or conviction of a lesser included offense bars retrial on the greater offense), overruled on other grounds by State v. Wardlow, 95 N.M. 585, 624 P.2d 527 (1981). Defendant's claim to a jury poll under Rule 5-611 is based on his contention that the district court erred in failing to instruct the jury that second degree murder and unlawful taking of a vehicle are lesser included offenses of first degree felony murder. Cf. UJI 14-250 NMRA 1998 (jury procedure for various degrees of homicide); UJI 14-6002 NMRA 1998 (instruction for necessarily included offense); UJI 14-6012 NMRA 1998 (multiple verdict forms for lesser included offenses). {53} Under Rule 5-611(D), [i]f the jury has been instructed on one or more lesser included offenses, and the jury cannot unanimously agree upon any of the offenses submitted, the court shall poll the jury by inquiring as to each degree of the offense upon which the jury has been instructed beginning with the highest degree and, in descending order, inquiring as to each lesser degree until the court has determined at what level of the offense the jury has disagreed. This rule does not apply here, however, because the jury was not instructed on one or more lesser included offenses. See O'Kelly v. State, 94 N.M. 74, 75, 607 P.2d 612, 613 (1980); cf. State v. O'Kelley, 113 N.M. 25, 29, 822 P.2d 122, 126 (Ct.App.1991) (Only where the jury is given the full opportunity to return a verdict either on the greater or alternatively on the lesser offense does the doctrine of implied acquittal obtain.). {54} Further, Defendant's trial counsel failed to preserve the alleged instructional error for appellate review because he did not tender any jury instructions at the first trial to indicate that the charges of second degree murder and unlawful taking of a vehicle should be considered as lesser included offenses. To preserve error concerning a failure to instruct on an issue, a correct written instruction must be tendered before the jury is instructed. Rule 5-608(D) NMRA 1998. While we have recognized an exception to this rule when a court fails to instruct a jury on an essential element of an offense that is factually at issue, see Osborne, 111 N.M. at 662-63, 808 P.2d at 632-33, we have declined to apply the doctrine of fundamental error to a defendant's choice of whether to have the jury instructed on lesser included offenses, see State v. Boeglin, 105 N.M. 247, 250-52, 731 P.2d 943, 946-48 (1987). [T]he defendant in a first degree murder prosecution may take his [or her] chances with the jury by waiving instructions on lesser included offenses and cannot be heard to complain on appeal if he [or she] has gambled and lost. Id. at 251, 731 P.2d at 947. {55} When the jury is not instructed on lesser included offenses, [t]he protection ... against double jeopardy may reasonably and rationally be safeguarded by the trial judge exercising sound discretion in determining from the situation before him [or her] that the jury is hopelessly deadlocked. O'Kelly, 94 N.M. at 75, 607 P.2d at 613. Unlike the record in Castrillo, 90 N.M. at 613, 566 P.2d at 1151, the record of Defendant's first trial contains no ambiguity in the jurors' statements that they could not reach a verdict on any of the charges. During deliberations, the jury foreman wrote a note to the district court stating that the jury is deadlocked on all counts. Before declaring a mistrial, however, the district court advised the jury to consider each charge separately and made further inquiries as to whether the jurors were truly deadlocked. The jury's responses to these inquiries made clear that they had deadlocked on all counts and had not unanimously voted to acquit or convict Defendant on any of the charges at issue. Thus, the mistrial did not provide a basis for dismissal of the felony murder charge, and the district court did not err in denying Defendant's motion to dismiss this charge prior to his second trial.