Opinion ID: 1903008
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Prevailing Circumstances

Text: The judge's promise to the jury at the start of trial that it would not last past Thursday or Friday, together with the other prevailing circumstances, including the length of the deliberations, the lateness of the hour, the condition of the jurors, and the jury's disclosure of their numerical split raises additional concerns. The jury deliberated for over eight hours until past 4:30 in the morning without respite, during which the jury foreman repeatedly informed the court of the deadlock that resulted in open hostilities among the jurors. [8] In addition to the deadlock and hostilities, the record reflects that some of the jurors actually began to cry and walk off. During the course of the night, the judge requested the jury to continue deliberating on three different occasions, each time after the jurors had informed him they were deadlocked. Furthermore, although the jurors requested on several occasions to continue deliberating in the case, this did not occur until after the judge had informed the jury that they would be sequestered overnight. Hence, a jury that had apparently been promised an earlier finish faced the possibility of being sequestered indefinitely. These conditions certainly do not reflect the proper circumstances under which a jury should be deciding a capital punishment case. In Tomlinson v. State, 584 So.2d 43, 45 (Fla. 4th DCA 1991), the court held that it is per se reversible error to repeat a deadlock jury instruction and send a jury back for further deliberations after it has announced a second deadlock. Although it has been stated that the very object of the jury system is to secure unanimity by a comparison of views, and by arguments among the jurors themselves, see Allen, 164 U.S. at 501, 17 S.Ct. 154, hostilities ultimately evidenced by crying jurors are hardly indicative of reliable deliberations.