Court Opinion

ID: 9630271
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 10:06:55.891139+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:38:44.792494
License: Public Domain

CLIFFORD, Justice,
with whom COLLINS, J., joins, dissenting.
I agree with the Court that the trial court should use the A.B.A. standard instructions for lengthy deliberations and apparently deadlocked juries. See State v. White, 285 A.2d 832, 838 (Me.1972). I disagree, however, that the trial court’s instructions in this case varied from the A.B.A. standards to such a degree that they constitute obvious error. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
In instructing a jury that has demonstrated some difficulty in reaching a verdict, the court should encourage continued deliberation with a view to reaching an agreement, but that encouragement must be balanced with an instruction that a juror’s honestly held beliefs should not be relinquished merely to reach a verdict. See State v. Cote, 507 A.2d 584, 586 (Me.1986) (purpose of A.B.A. standard is to strike balance between competing considerations of juror reconsidering his or her opinions and need that verdict accurately reflect honestly held beliefs) (citing State v. Quint, 448 A.2d 1353, 1355 (Me.1982)); see *138also A.B.A. Standards for Criminal Justice § 15-4.4 (1980); D.G. Alexander, Manual of Jury Procedures and Instructions for Maine, Comment to Instruction # 201 at 8-9-8-12 (2d ed. 1990).
Before deliberations began in this case, the trial court instructed the jury that “you do have to decide the case for yourself. You should not give up a well-reasoned belief simply because you stand alone and want the case to end and go home. Nor should you worry about how long it takes you to reach a verdict. Some verdicts ... take a great deal of time.” Again, after several hours of deliberation, the court used similar language in its reinstruction to the jury after they indicated difficulty in reaching agreement. At the end of the first day of deliberation, as the jury was leaving, the court gave the following instructions, not directed toward how the jury was to deliberate, but for administrative reasons and to caution the jury about discussing the case at home:
THE COURT: All right. I appreciate what you people have done here today and I know it’s been a long day. At this point in time, what I would propose to do and what I intend to do is send you people home and have you come back tomorrow morning.
You haven’t eaten. I am sure that people are getting on edge in there and it’s a long day and I understand it’s been a long day and I appreciate the effort you have made. What I propose to do is send you home at this point in time and ask you to come back tomorrow morning to return to deliberate until you have a unanimous verdict in both charges here.
I want to caution you not to discuss the matter with your family members at home. Don’t allow anyone to talk to you about this. The decision you make [has] to be a decision of the twelve of you here in the jury room and you should not allow anyone to influence you. You shouldn’t talk to the attorneys here or any of the witnesses.
The decision you have to make is here and it’s a decision of twelve people and it requires input of each of you in that decision. So I propose I intend to send you people home, but I want to caution you not to talk about the case at home. That will obviously be your natural reaction to do that. Don’t do that or allow anyone to in anyway influence you as to what your ultimate decision is in this case.
There is one problem. They’re taking the boiler apart here tomorrow, I understand, so it’s supposed to be warmer outside. Dress warmly. I can’t tell you how warm it’s going to be in here, pretty cool here right now. Sometimes it’s very hot here, but I would have jackets with you so that you will be warm. I don’t know how bad it will be here tomorrow. Hopefully it won’t be bad, but the potential is there for it to be cool here so I want to tell you in advance.
Again don’t talk about the case and don’t start deliberating here until all twelve of you are present tomorrow. I hope you don’t think I’m being arbitrary or harsh, but this is the procedures that we follow in Maine and I am going to ask you — and I hope that you have a good evening and come back here .fresh and are able to reach a unanimous decision tomorrow. Anything further from counsel?
Weidul raised no objection to any of the court's instructions. The jury returned the next day, resumed deliberations and reached a verdict before the end of the morning.
Because errors in a court’s instructions to the jury are so easily correctable if they are called to the court’s attention, M.R.Crim.P. 30(b) imposes on a party a positive duty to object to such instructions before the jury retires to consider the evidence. When there is a failure to so object, any claimed error advanced on appeal is reviewed under an obvious error standard. State v. Mahaney, 437 A.2d 613, 617 (Me. 1981); M.R.Crim.P. 52(b). In such a case, we will not disturb a conviction unless the “ ‘obviousness of the error and the seriousness of the injustice done to the defendant thereby are so great [that we] cannot in good conscience let the conviction stand.’ ” State v. Billadeau, 597 A.2d 414, 417 (Me. *1391991) (quoting State v. True, 438 A.2d 460, 469 (Me.1981)).
In this case, both times that the court specifically directed the jurors’ attention to and instructed them on the proper method of conducting their deliberations, it instructed them that they had to decide the case for themselves and that they should not give up their well-reasoned beliefs merely to reach a verdict. Those instructions struck the proper balance between the desirability of reaching a verdict and the need that the verdict reflect the honestly held beliefs of the jurors. See Cote, 507 A.2d at 586. Although the court did not use the exact language of the A.B.A. standards, when viewed in context and in their entirety, the instructions comport with the purpose and spirit of the standard. In my judgment, they certainly do not rise to the level of obvious or manifest error. See Mahaney, 437 A.2d at 618-19. I would affirm the convictions.