Court Opinion

ID: 9520859
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 01:52:01.497215+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:47:05.051535
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE ZWICK, dissenting: I dissent and would order a new trial based upon the trial court’s refusal to answer the question posed by the jury during deliberations. The Illinois Supreme Court has spoken recently and decisively on this issue and held that jury deliberations are governed by "several fundamental principles,” chief among them being the precept that "a jury is entitled to have its explicit legal questions answered.” See Childs, 159 Ill. 2d at 233. In Childs, the jury posed a question during deliberations which was virtually identical to that posed in the instant case. The trial court refused to answer the question, instructing the jury to continue deliberating. In reversing the defendant’s conviction, the supreme court reiterated the general rule that the trial court has a duty to provide guidance where the jury has posed an explicit question or requested clarification on a point of law arising from facts about which there is doubt or confusion, even where the jury was properly instructed originally. Childs, 159 Ill. 2d at 228-29. The court further held that when a jury makes explicit its difficulties, the court should resolve them with specificity and accuracy, and the failure to answer or the giving of a response which provides no answer to the particular question of law posed has been held to be prejudicial error. Childs, 159 Ill. 2d at 229 (and cases cited therein). The supreme court recognized that a trial court may exercise its discretion and properly decline to answer a jury’s inquiries where the original instructions were readily understandable and where further instructions would serve no useful purpose or would potentially mislead the jury, when the jury’s inquiry involved a question of fact, or if the giving of an answer would cause the court to express an opinion which would likely direct a verdict one way or another. See Childs, 159 Ill. 2d at 228. However, none of these circumstances were presented in the case at bar. Here, as in Childs, the jury posed an explicit question which manifested juror confusion on an "intricate” and "difficult” point of law, which other cases have suggested is not an uncommon source of juror confusion. Childs, 159 Ill. 2d at 234. The trial court had the obligation to dispel the jury’s confusion with a clear and specific answer. See Childs, 159 Ill. 2d at 232. Just as the trial court did in Childs, the trial judge here simply ordered the jury to continue deliberating. It was the responsibility and obligation of the court to answer these types of questions, and the trial court erred by inaction. The trial court’s refusal to answer the question violated the supreme court’s clear and unequivocal mandate that jurors must have this type of inquiry answered. Childs, 159 Ill. 2d at 228. Therefore, I would reverse the defendant’s conviction and order a new trial.