In the US, is there any required length of time that a jury in a criminal case must deliberate before a declaration of “hung jury” is issued?
No set time. The court usually tells them to keep trying, until they say something like “we won’t ever be able to return a verdict.”
I’ve seen it range from about a day to about a week.
Can the judge find a juror in contempt if s/he is a holdout and refuses to “deliberate.” I realize contempt could not (I assume) be found for simply voting one way or the other, but suppose one juror simply refuses to even talk to the other jurors.
As soon as the pants come off.
Can’t see how–the jury room is pretty much sacrosanct; deliberations are as close as anything in the system is to being absolutely, inviolably confidential. Of course, jurors are generally free to discuss deliberations afterward, but I believe (without being certain, being no litigator) that a judge’s contempt powers stem by common law from his duty to keep order in his courtroom; once the trial’s over, I don’t believe he can reach out and tap people retroactively for contempt.
All this aside, as a policy matter it would be a bad idea; it’s hard enough to be the only hold-out on principle without having to worry that you could face criminal or civil sanction for doing so.
I was the foreperson on a DUI jury trial and one of the jurors (stupidly) said at the beginning of the deliberation they would vote not guilty no matter what happened because “the government had no right to tell someone they couldn’t drink and drive”. :rolleyes: That’s jury nullification, and I could have reported it to the judge and the juror would have been immediately replaced, but in the interest of expedience we deliberated anyway and came to the conclusion that the defendant was not guilty so it didn’t matter in this particular case.
Sure. In fact, that sort of willful disobedience is the best way to get slapped with a contempt citation. Stupid but accidental violations of the rules (like reading about the case online) could potentially lead to a contempt citation, but judges won’t often bother. You’ll just be dismissed.
I agree with all of this - I guess I was envisioning something like a juror refusing to enter the jury room, or something similarly over-the-top (and in the view of court officials).
That’s a different situation. If you’ve got that sort of egregious misbehaviour in court, I imagine the judge could use his contempt powers, or (more likely) dismiss the juror in favor of an alternate (or possibly a bit of both). Still don’t know for sure, though… but in almost 240 years of American jurisprudence, it’s probably happened somewhere.
I do not live in New York, but I do know from past research thier Constitution does not permit a Judge to order the Jury to keep deliberating once a deadlock is announced. This so called “Allen Charge” of the federal case name, may be applicable in state courts under different case name charges though.
I don’t even know if my state permits it, I just came across NY once in research.