Court Opinion

ID: 9511215
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:02:51.669746+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:04:55.256529
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE COTTER
concurs.
¶45 I concur in the Court’s decision. I write separately to add that the jury instructions, as given by the District Court, clearly set forth the correct rule with respect to the right of a juror to hold firm in his or her minority opinion. The jury was told in Instruction No. 34, that “no juror should surrender an honest opinion as to the weight or effect of evidence or as to the innocence or guilt of the Defendant because the majority of the jury feels otherwise, or for the purpose of returning an unanimous verdict or to prevent a mistrial.” When faced with a motion for mistrial in State v. George, we found the submission to the jury of a similar instruction significant. State v. George (1986), 219 Mont. 377, 382, 711 P.2d 1379, 1382-83. I find the same to be significant here, and therefore concur.