Court Opinion

ID: 9461861
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:26:09.295862+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:17.650761
License: Public Domain

LUMBARD, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent.
I am not persuaded that the Double Jeopardy Clause, or the Supreme Court cases applying it, prohibited New York from again trying James Rogers for kidnapping in the first degree — described in count four of the indictment as abduction resulting in the death of sixteen-month-old Delia Mott. In contrast to the majority, which focuses on the not-guilty verdicts under count three,1 for me the determinative consideration is that Rogers’ first trial ended in a hung jury, deadlocked over whether Rogers was guilty of abduction resulting in death or even simple abduction, both of which were charged under count four.
The first trial took fifteen days. The jury deliberated two days. On the second day of deliberations, the jury returned not guilty verdicts on counts one, two,2 and three, and at the same time announced its deadlock on count four. The jury then continued deliberations on count four for several hours. Finally, it returned to court still deadlocked, and the judge declared a mistrial on count four, without objection by defense counsel.
As a starting point, under this Circuit’s decision in United States v. Zane, 495 F.2d 683 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 895, 95 S.Ct. 174, 42 L.Ed.2d 139 (1974), it is clear that had the jury at Rogers’ first trial broken its deadlock and returned a guilty verdict under count four, of either abduction resulting in death or simple abduction, this guilty verdict would have withstood an attack based on double jeopardy, res judicata, or collateral estoppel, notwithstanding the not-guilty verdict entered hours earlier by the same jury with respect to the subsidiary charge of simple abduction under count three. See also Dunn v. United States, 284 U.S. 390, 52 S.Ct. 189, 76 L.Ed. 356 (1932). As detailed in Zane, courts have been unwilling to upset allegedly “inconsistent” jury verdicts by speculation as to whether they might have been the result of compromise or mistake. In the present case, one reasonable explanation for the acquittal of simple abduction under count three and the deadlock under count four, is that the jury may have misunderstood the precise elements of simple abduction under count three. It may have thought that simple abduction under count three included the time element of the primary charge (twelve hours) or some requirement of an intent to injure. Alternatively, the jury may have thought that one of the two charges of simple abduction was surplusage, and by acquitting Rogers under all of count three, it did not intend to eliminate simple' abduction as charged under count four from its further deliberations, not to mention the primary charge under count four of abduction resulting in death. Another possibility is that the jury simply wanted to focus on that count (four) where it felt there was the greatest possibility of agreement on a guilty verdict.
This case differs, however, from Zane in that the jury returned after completing its second day of deliberations, still deadlocked on count four, and the court declared a mistrial. Thus, unlike Zane, Rogers’ subsequent conviction of abduc*1336tion resulting in death came only after a second trial, which meant that Rogers was again “subject[ed] to embarrassment, expense and ordeal and compell[ed] to live in a continuing state of anxiety and insecurity” — a harm against which the Double Jeopardy Clause was intended to protect in certain situations. United States v. Jenkins, 420 U.S. 358, 370, 95 S.Ct. 1006, 43 L.Ed.2d 250 (1975).
But the Double Jeopardy Clause does not bar all reprosecutions. As the Supreme Court noted in Jenkins, it is “of critical importance whether the proceedings, in the trial court terminate in a mistrial as they did in the Somerville3 line of cases, or in the defendant’s favor. . . .” at 365 n.7, 95 S.Ct. at 1011 n. 7. The Somerville line of cases referred to by the court holds that a retrial is not barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause where a court has declared a mistrial because there was a “manifest necessity” for such action. One well-established situation where retrial is permitted is where a jury has become deadlocked after extensive deliberations and the trial court concludes that justice would not be served by pressuring the jury to reach a verdict one way or the other. See Illinois v. Somerville, 410 U.S. at 461-63, 93 S.Ct. 1066; United States v. Perez, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat.) 579, 580, 6 L.Ed. 165 (1824); United States v. Goldstein, 479 F.2d 1061, 1068-69 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 873, 94 S.Ct. 151, 38 L.Ed.2d 113 (1973). Indeed, to my knowledge, prior to this case, the Double Jeopardy Clause has not been held to be a bar to a retrial of counts regarding which a jury has failed to agree and where the trial judge has properly exercised his discretion in declaring a mistrial.
There is no indication here that the trial judge abused his discretion in determining that the ends of justice would best be served by a new trial, rather than by forcing continued deliberations until the deadlock was broken. See United States v. Goldstein, supra. The jury here had deliberated two days, following a fifteen-day trial, and was still unable to reach a verdict on count four. Moreover, the defendant made no objection to the declaration of a mistrial.
The majority, however, claims that this case does not fall within the Somerville line of cases. It finds that the acquittal of Rogers on count three was sufficient to bar reprosecution on count four, despite the fact that it would not have barred a conviction by the initial jury on count four. However I find no valid reason to distinguish the present case from the usual situation where a retrial is permitted on the counts on which a jury has been unable to agree. Rogers’ trial did not terminate in his favor; he was still very much in jeopardy of conviction for abduction resulting in death or simple abduction. To focus solely on the answer of “not guilty” to the subsidiary charge of simple abduction under count three is to ignore the fact that in virtually the same breath the foreman stated that the jury was deadlocked not only on simple abduction as charged under count four, but on the primary charge under count four of kidnapping resulting in death. The jury even continued its deliberations on count four alone, only to return to court a second time, still deadlocked, at which point the judge declared a mistrial. There is no way in which it can be said in these circumstances that the jury had determined that Rogers had not committed even simple abduction. Reprosecution of Rogers could not possibly deprive him of the benefit of favorable factual findings below.4
*1337In these circumstances, I do not believe that the Double Jeopardy Clause barred reprosecution of Rogers for the crime of kidnapping in the first degree (kidnapping resulting in death). Accordingly I would affirm the order of the district court denying Rogers’ petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

. Count three charged abduction for more than twelve hours with intent to injure the victim or to violate the victim sexually. Simple abduction was a subsidiary charge under count three, as it was under count four.

. Count one charged felony murder, and count two charged murder in the first degree.

. Illinois v. Somerville, 410 U.S. 458, 93 S.Ct. 1066, 35 L.Ed.2d 425 (1974).

. Green v. United States, 355 U.S. 184, 78 S.Ct. 221, 2 L.Ed.2d 199 (1957), relied upon by the majority, does not control the present case. Defendant Green was initially convicted of second degree murder, with the jury returning no verdict on the related charge of first degree murder. After Green successfully appealed his conviction of second degree murder, the government retried him on murder in both the first and second degrees.
*1337In finding that the Double Jeopardy Clause barred reprosecution of Green for murder in the first degree, the Court stated that the great majority of cases in this country have regarded a jury verdict like that returned at Green’s first trial, as an implied acquittal of murder in the first degree. In addition, the Court found that the retrial did not fall within United States v. Perez, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat.) 579, 6 L.Ed. 165 (1824), because there was no “manifest necessity’’ for subjecting Green to a second trial on first degree murder. The first jury had had a full opportunity to return a verdict on that count, and no extraordinary circumstances appeared which prevented it from doing so. Moreover, Green had not consented to the dismissal of the first jury.
In the present case, however, the judge quite properly declared a mistrial when the jury deadlocked over count four after two days of deliberations. Moreover, I do not view the jury’s conduct at Rogers’ first trial as amounting to even an implied acquittal of simple abduction. At the same time that the jury announced the not guilty verdicts under count three, it announced that it was deadlocked over count four which charged abduction resulting in death and simple abduction. It thereafter continued to deliberate on count four, still failing to reach a verdict, at which point the judge declared the mistrial.
The majority’s reliance on Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 445, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970), also seems misplaced. I do not believe that the jury at Rogers’ first trial necessarily decided the factual issues raised in Rogers’ retrial under count four. See Majority Op. at 1334. Although the jury found Rogers not guilty under count three of simple abduction, it continued to consider that very charge as well as abduction resulting in death, under count four, and failed after further deliberations to reach a verdict.