Court Opinion

ID: 9463614
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:10:59.79437+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:11.251860
License: Public Domain

EUGENE A. WRIGHT, Circuit Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
I concur in that portion of the majority opinion which deals with the alleged prein-dictment delay. Appellant has shown neither an intentional device by the prosecution nor substantial prejudice.
With due respect to the views of the majority, I dissent from that portion of the opinion which holds that it was reversible error to repeat the so-called Allen charge under the circumstances of this case. I strongly disagree with the per se rule that is now adopted because I feel that it is an *1165unwarranted intrusion into the area of trial court discretion.1
Consideration of the judge’s role in trial proceedings convinces me that there was no coercion in this case. The trial judge has a duty “to guide the jury by appropriate legal criteria through the maze of facts before it . ” Bollenbach v. United States, 326 U.S. 607, 613, 66 S.Ct. 402, 405, 90 L.Ed. 350 (1946). This responsibility has been upon the judge from early times.
In 1901 the Supreme Court stated:
[T]he judge is primarily responsible for the just outcome of the trial. He is not a mere moderator of a town meeting, submitting questions to the jury for determination, nor simply ruling on the admissibility of testimony, but one who in our jurisprudence stands charged with full responsibility.
Patton v. Texas and Pacific Railway Company, 179 U.S. 658, 660, 21 S.Ct. 275, 276, 45 L.Ed. 361 (1901).
*1166Indeed, the judge’s duty to guide and direct the jury has been said to be an essential part of the right to trial by jury.2 In Capital Traction Co. v. Hof, 174 U.S. 1, 19 S.Ct. 580, 43 L.Ed. 873 (1899), the Court noted:
The Constitution secures a trial by jury, without defining what that trial is. We are left to the common law to learn what it is that is secured. [When the Constitution was adopted the] trial by jury was . a trial of an issue of fact by twelve men, under the direction and superintendence of the court. This direction and superintendence was an essential part of the trial.
Id. at 15-16, 19 S.Ct. at 586, quoting from United States v. Bags of Merchandise (1863), 2 Sprague, 85-88. (Emphasis added.) As stated in Devitt, E. & Blackmar, C., 1 Federal Jury Practice and Instructions § 5.01 at 95 (1970): “In the last analysis, [the trial judge] must guide.”
This is the duty the trial judge performed in this case. Appellant’s trial lasted several days and the jurors were confronted with the testimony of 22 witnesses and a case built entirely on circumstantial evidence. It was the trial judge’s “duty to guide, direct and assist the jury toward an intelligent understanding of the legal and factual issues . . .” Elbel v. United States, 364 F.2d 127, 134 (10th Cir. 1966), cert. denied, 385 U.S. 1014, 87 S.Ct. 726, 17 L.Ed.2d 550 (1967). It was also “his inescapable duty to guide and assist them in their search for truth . . . [t]he paramount consideration [being], of course, that the jury be given to understand that they should not compromise their conscientious convictions on the facts.” Id. at 136.3
The judge in this case did not unreasonably undertake to fulfill this duty. He believed that a second Allen charge would help the jury arrive at a fair and impartial verdict. In the event that he had misjudged them, however, he was careful to note before giving the charge:
I remind you that it is not my practice to require a jury to deliberate beyond the point of fatigue, you do not have to deliberate any further than six-thirty tonight. If you’re not able to arrive at a verdict, then we’ll not go further tonight and you’ll simply not have to.
[Reporter’s Transcript at 751.]
Additionally, within the Allen charge itself was the language:
Remember, at all times, that no juror is expected to yield a conscientious conviction he or she may have as to the weight or effect of the evidence.
[Reporter’s Transcript at 754.] Thus, no attempt was made to compromise the jurors’ conscientious convictions.
Other indicia aside from the judge’s conduct also indicate that the giving of the second charge was not coercive. Notably, the jury deliberated another 50 minutes after the second charge before returning a verdict. In other cases, the return of a verdict within a shorter time after a single Allen charge has been found not coercive. Bryan v. Wainwright, 511 F.2d 644, 646 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 837, 96 S.Ct. 63, 46 L.Ed.2d 55 (1975) (17 minutes); United States v. Stollings, 501 F.2d 954, 956 (4th Cir. 1974) (30 minutes); United States v. *1167Hynes, 424 F.2d 754, 757 (2nd Cir.), cert. denied, 399 U.S. 933, 90 S.Ct. 2270, 26 L.Ed.2d 804 (1970) (5 minutes).
Nor was the total time of jury deliberation, approximately eight and one-half hours, so disproportionate to the task before the jury as to require this court to find that it was an abuse of discretion not to find the jury “hopelessly deadlocked,” and to declare a mistrial. As stated in United States v. Goldstein, 479 F.2d 1061, 1069 (2nd Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 873, 94 S.Ct. 151, 38 L.Ed.2d 113 (1973), the time needed to reach a verdict is a determination “best left to a trial judge” and “difficult to gauge . by appellate judges on a cold record.”
Although it has been observed that the law generally attempts to protect juries from coercive influences,4 I cannot agree that the actions of the judge in this case were coercive or constituted an abuse of discretion.5
In a recent case note dealing with the giving of the Allen charge in a Louisiana state case, it was concluded: .
It is submitted that in view of the split among the circuit courts, a decision by the Supreme Court would be appropriate.
Note, 22 Loyola L.Rev. 667, 675 (1976).
I join in that observation.

. I need not protract this discussion by referring to all of the writings on the Allen charge, but some reference should be made to studies by the American Bar Association. Its Standards Relating To The Function Of The Trial Judge, Approved Draft, 1972, § 5.12 provides:
5.12 Assistance during jury deliberations.
(a) The trial judge should provide assistance to the jury during deliberation by permitting materials to be taken to the jury room and responding to requests to review evidence and for additional instructions, under appropriate safeguards as provided in ABA Standards, Trial by Jury §§ 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3.
(b) In dealing with what appears to be a deadlocked jury, the trial judge should avoid instructions which imply that a majority view is the correct one, by complying with ABA Standards, Trial by Jury § 5.4. Adopted by reference is § 5.4 of Standards
Relating to Trial by Jury, Approved Draft, 1968, which reads:
5.4' Length of deliberations; deadlocked jury.
(a) Before the jury retires for deliberation, the court may give an instruction which informs the jury:
(i) that in order to return a verdict, each juror must agree thereto;
(ii) that jurors have a duty to consult with one another and to deliberate with a view to reaching an agreement, if it can be done without violence to individual judgment;
(iii) that each juror must decide the case for himself, but only after an impartial consideration of the evidence with his fellow jurors;
(iv) that in the course of deliberations, a jur- or should not hesitate to re-examine his own views and change his opinion if convinced it is erroneous; and
(v) that no juror should surrender his honest conviction as to the weight or effect of the evidence solely because of the opinion of his fellow jurors, or for the mere purpose of returning a verdict.
(b) If it appears to the court that the jury has been unable to agree, the court may require the jury to continue their deliberations and may give or repeat an instruction as provided in subsection (a). The court shall not require or threaten to require the jury to deliberate for an unreasonable length of time or for unreasonable intervals.
(c) The jury may be discharged without having agreed upon a verdict if it appears that there is no reasonable probability of agreement.
The commentary to Section 5.4(a) includes an illustrative instruction, most of which was incorporated into the district judge’s charge. Note 2, majority opinion.
The commentary to Section 5.4(b) provides further enlightenment:
This subsection of the standard is intended to make it clear that the trial judge may send the jury back for further deliberations notwithstanding the jury’s indication to the court that it has been unable to agree. It is the general view that the court may send the jury back for additional deliberations even though the jury has indicated once, twice, or several times that it cannot agree or even after they have requested that they be discharged.
. . . The general rule is that the length of time a jury may be kept deliberating is a matter within the discretion of the trial judge, but abuse of that discretion requires reversal. The reasonableness of the deliberation period depends' upon such factors as the length of the trial, the nature or complexity of the case, the volume and nature of the evidence, the presence of multiple counts or multiple defendants, and the jurors’ statements to the court concerning the probability of agreement.
These standards indicate that the trial court has great discretion in assisting jury deliberation and that any coercive effect can be avoided by giving the proper form to the Allen charge to the jurors before they retire to deliberate.

. It should also be noted that a defendant has a “valued right to have this trial completed by a particular tribunal.” Wade v. Hunter, 336 U.S. 684, 689, 69 S.Ct. 834, 837, 93 L.Ed. 974 (1949). This right should be balanced by the trial judge against society’s interest in just judgments and the conservation of judicial resources.

. Commentators recognized that it is a fine line that a judge must walk. “An overly active judge may give the appearance of a meddler; but equally, a passive and quiescent trial judge may give the appearance of indifference.” Sil-verman, “The Trial Judge: Pilot, Participant, or Umpire?” 11 Alberta L.Rev. 40, 62 (1973). Perhaps it is well summed up in the following quotation:
The trial judge can be a pilot who guides the trial along sedate, orderly lines within the confines of the rules of evidence and the applicable law. He is certainly more than an umpire, watching the sporting-theory of litigation in action; and he is less than a participant in that he should not enter into the fray of combat nor take on the mantle of counsel.
Id. at 63-64 (footnote omitted).

. See, e. g., Sheppard v. Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333, 86 S.Ct. 1507, 16 L.Ed.2d 600 (1966) (pre-trial publicity); Moore v. Dempsey, 261 U.S. 86, 43 S.Ct. 265, 67 L.Ed. 543 (1923) (mob dominated trial).

. As a further refinement, I suggest that the Allen charge be given in writing along with the other basic instructions and that all instructions accompany the jurors to the jury room. See United States v. Miller, 546 F.2d 320, at 324, n.3 (9th Cir. 1976). This procedure should avoid the necessity to give the entire charge orally at a later point in the deliberations.
Additionally, trial judges might consider, in lieu of supplemental instructions, suspending jury deliberations for a time to alleviate juror tension. After a rest, or possibly a good night’s sleep, jurors could return to their deliberations refreshed.