Court Opinion

ID: 9467111
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:38:53.713907+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:10.109290
License: Public Domain

PREGERSON, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
Following two days of trial testimony on April 16 and 17, 1979, the court reconvened on the morning of April 18 for argument by counsel and for the court’s jury instructions. The jury began its deliberations at approximately 11:30 a. m. Working through the lunch hour, the jury continued to deliberate until approximately 2:30 or 3:00 p. m. At that time, counsel were summoned to return to the court. The trial judge did not inform counsel why they were being summoned, but brought the jury into the courtroom and then, in the presence of counsel, read a note from the jury to the effect that the jury was deadlocked. At that point, without consultation or consent of the defendant or his counsel, the trial court, sua sponte, discharged the jury and declared a mistrial.
I am unable to conclude that the trial court exercised the “sound discretion” that Arizona v. Washington, 434 U.S. 497, 516, 98 S.Ct. 824, 835-836, 54 L.Ed.2d 717 (1978), requires before mistrials are declared. Moreover, I am unable to say that “manifest necessity” for the mistrial existed or that “careful consideration [was accorded defendant’s] interest in having the trial concluded in a single proceeding.” 434 U.S. at 516-17, 98 S.Ct. at 835. The hour was not late, the jurors had not deliberated very long, the trial had taken the better part of two days, and there was no apparent confusion as to either the facts or the law on the part of the jurors.1 Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.

. Cawley’s failure to object after the trial court, sua sponte, declared a mistrial does not preclude our consideration of this issue. Cf. Arnold v. McCarthy, 566 F.2d.1377, 1386-87 (9th Cir. 1978) (a timely objection is one of several factors useful in determining whether a judge has properly exercised his discretion to declare a deadlocked jury).