Does the judge have a duty to instruct the jury to return to court to render verdicts on all counts?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Finch, 213 Cal.App.2d 752, 29 Cal.Rptr. 420 (Cal. App. 1963):

We find no error in the judge's comments to the jury or the procedure followed by him with respect to these special pleas. Assuming that the judge in the second trial had been informed the jury had reached unanimity as to three counts and was undecided as to a fourth, he was under no legal duty to instruct the jurors to return to court in order to render verdicts. Section 1160 of the Penal Code permits the jury to make a separate return of its verdict on each count when more than one count is charged. (People v. Rigney, 55 Cal.2d 236, 246, 10 Cal.Rptr. 625, 359 P.2d 23.) There is no requirement in law, however, requiring the trial judge to receive verdicts on part of the counts and return the jurors for further deliberation as to the other counts. Clearly, this was a matter for the judge's discretion. The second trial had been even more lengthy and more arduous than the first; it had lasted nearly four months and had produced a daily transcript of 12,593 pages. It was to the interest of the prosecution and the defense that every effort be made to reach a final determination as to all counts. In actuality, some of the jurors testified that the ballots which had been taken had been merely tentative with the jurors reserving the right to reconsider their votes after the rereading of certain testimony. This is borne out by the fact that upon their final return to the court the jurors acknowledged that they were hopelessly deadlocked without agreeing to a verdict on any count.

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