Court Opinion

ID: 9633037
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:32:05.378278+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:27.763062
License: Public Domain

MARTONE, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent because I do not understand how, in precisely following the rules of court, a judge could be said to have coerced a jury. What the judge did here is the exact procedure prescribed by the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure. Rule 23.4, Ariz. R.Crim.P. provides:
After the verdict is returned and before the jury is discharged, it shall be polled at the request of any party or upon the court’s own initiative. If the responses to the jurors do not support the verdict, the court may direct them to retire for further deliberations or they may be discharged.
In this case, a juror responded that it was not her verdict. Under Rule 23.4, the court could have simply sent the entire panel back for further deliberation. • Rule 23.4 contemplates that. On the other hand, it also contemplates discharge. But discharge is controlled by Rule 22.4(b), Ariz.R.Crim.P., under which a judge will ask the jury whether there is a “reasonable probability that the jurors can agree upon a verdict.” Rule 22.4(b), Ariz.R.Crim.P. The trial court, in deciding which option to choose, decided to ask the question under Rule 22.4. The foreman said he did not think so [not an unconditional “no”] and then said “we can give it a try.” This is exactly what Rule 23.4 and Rule 22.4 contemplate. Discharge having been determined to be premature under Rule 22.4(b), the court elected to direct the jury “to retire for further deliberations” under Rule 23.4. I *13thus do not see how this can be a case of coercion, let alone fundamental error.
What then accounts for the court’s decision? What justifies its degree of concern, exemplified by its metaphorical suggestion that the juror “should have been checked for bruises?” Ante, at 10, 881 P.2d at 342. I confess I do not know. I speculate that the court does not want jurors deliberating on New Year’s Eve. With this proposition, I quite agree, but this is a matter of jury management, not legal coercion. I therefore respectfully dissent.