Hung Jury

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Hung Jury

A trial jury duly selected to make a decision in a criminal case regarding a defendant's guilt or innocence, but who are unable to reach a verdict due to a complete division in opinion.

When a jury has been given an adequate opportunity to deliberate and is unable to reach a verdict, a retrial takes place at the discretion of the prosecution. The subsequent trial does not constitute a violation of the constitutional prohibition of Double Jeopardy.

hung jury

n. slang for a hopelessly deadlocked jury in a criminal case, in which neither side is able to prevail. Usually it means there is no unanimous verdict (although in Oregon and Louisiana 10 of 12 jurors can convict or acquit). If the jury is hung the trial judge will declare a mistrial. A new trial from scratch, with a new jury panel, is required. The prosecutor can decide not to re-try the case, particularly if a majority of the jury favored acquittal. (See: jury, dismissal, trial, mistrial)

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References in periodicals archive ?

"Whenever a prosecutor brings a case and gets a hung jury, he has to ask himself if this is something worth going after.

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Thus, in 87% of the disagreements about guilt or innocence, the jury was more lenient than the judge was, and in 79% of the disagreements arising from a hung jury, the jury was more lenient than the judge.

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Jurors Robert Gourley, Claudia Torres, and Edine Woods have said that they did not want to support a guilty verdict for the Border Patrol agents and would have held out for a hung jury, except that they were improperly instructed that that was not an option.

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In a release put out after this month's hung jury, Faro headlined that it had been "vindicated by [the] mistrial verdict," and that the opposition had "failed to prove their case that we infringe."

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The term "hung jury" - a jury that cannot agree on a verdict - was coined in the 1840s.

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When the case was tried for the second time, the result again was a hung jury. Some of the jurors wanted to award the plaintiff $50,000, one thought $65,000 was appropriate, another said $200,000, and the foreman recommended $100,000.

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