Court Opinion

ID: 9850611
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 04:59:59.976632+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:40.355640
License: Public Domain

RAWLINGS, Justice,
(dissenting).
Division II of the majority opinion places the stamp of approval on the giving of post-submission verdict-urging instructions. With this I cannot agree and therefore respectfully dissent.
The instruction with which we are here dealing is commonly known as the “Allen Charge”. See Allen v. United States, (1896), 164 U.S. 492, 17 S.Ct. 154, 41 L.Ed. 528.
In State v. Peirce, 178 Iowa 417, 159 N.W. 1050, this court, in effect, urged caution in the use of such an instruction and in so doing said, loc. cit., 178 Iowa 427, 159 N.W. 1055: “The only practical general rule that may be worked out from all this is that, where the disagreement is of more than ordinary and usual duration, and after the giving of such an instruction as this a verdict is reached in a time short in comparison with the duration of the disagreement, a presumption arises that the instruction was prejudicial; that, to use the words of the Clemens case (Clemens v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co., 163 Iowa 499, 144 N.W. 354), there should be a reversal where in such circumstances ‘there is no competent evidence in the record to indicate that the jurors * * * were brought to a final agreement resulting in a verdict, other than through the coercive influence of this instruction, and the long hours of involuntary servitude to which they were subjected, with the tentative suggestion of longer confinement in the event they failed to agree.’ ”
In Green v. United States (5 Cir.), 309 F.2d 852, 854, the giving of verdict-urging instructions was condemned with this appropriate statement: “The Allen or ‘dynamite’ charge is designed to blast loose a deadlocked jury. There is small, if any, justification for its use. Nevertheless, an old decision of the Supreme Court has upheld the charge as a reminder to jurors that ‘they should listen, with a disposition to be convinced, to each other’s argument.’ Allen v. United States, 1896, 164 U.S. 492, 17 S.Ct. 154, 41 L.Ed. 528. This is the outermost limit of its permissible use. There is no justification whatever for its coercive use. The jury system rests in good part on the assumption that the jurors should deliberate patiently and long, if necessary, and arrive at a verdict- — -if, but only if, they can do so conscientiously. It is improper for the court to interfere with the jury by pressuring a minority of the jurors to sacrifice their conscientious scruples for the sake of reaching agreement.”
More recently the American Bar Association Committee on the Criminal Trial, Standards Relating to Trial by Jury, page 145, advocated adoption of the following standard:
“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 juror should not hesitate to reexamine 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 *128effect 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.”
And at page 146 is this commentary on the foregoing standard:
“Section 5.4(a)
“For the reasons set forth in the Commentary to section 5.4(b), infra, the Advisory Committee has concluded that the instruction commonly referred to as the Allen charge or ‘dynamite charge’ should not be given to a jury which has been unable to agree after some deliberations. Nonetheless, it is most appropriate for the court to instruct the jury initially as to the nature of its duties in the course of deliberations, and section 5.4(a) so provides. The standard does not require the use of any particular language, but does identify the five points on which the jury might properly be advised.”
This American Bar Association committee proposal, quoted supra, would in my humble opinion serve to eliminate that vice which is inherent in any verdict-urging instruction given in a criminal case after the jury has once started its deliberations.
In support of the foregoing see also State v. Thomas, 86 Ariz. 161, 342 P.2d 197, 200, and dissent in Huffman v. United States (5 Cir.), 297 F.2d 754, 759.
I would reverse and remand for new trial.
MASON and BECKER, JJ., join in this dissent.