The jury sends back a note on a four count indictment indicating they have reached a verdict on two counts and wanting to know what happens if they can't on the other two. They wanted to go home till morning, so they have been recessed.

Can you grant a mistrial on 2 counts and accept the verdict on 2 counts? If so, how does the Judge answer that? If not, how does the Judge answer that?

They had been out only 1 1/2 hours, so it may not hang on anything, but we need to know what to tell them come morning!!! Thanks.

If the defense agrees to let them go just let them work tomorrow. 2 1/2 hours isn't very long Are you still in guilt or innocence or in punishment? I hate the charge the Judge sends in that tells them to keep deliberating.
I was worried several weeks ago when the jury took too long in the punishment phase of a Murder, Attempted Murder and Agg Aslt D/W 3 count case. I was afraid one hang up might kill the other 2 counts which would be awful. Van Horn told me you just get a mistrial on the one and try the punishment again.The other two verdicts stand alone which makes sense when you think it through. Good luck!!!

Yes, you can accept a verdict on some counts and announce a mistrial on other counts.

A court can discharge a jury when the jury has been kept together for such time as to render it improbable that they can agree. Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Art. 36.31.

How long is long enough? It's the discretion of the trial court.

BUT, a trial court must consider and rule out less drastic measures before declaring a mistrial. Brown v. State, 907 S.W.2d 835, 839 (Tex. Crim. App. 1995).

If a trial court declares a mistrial despite available less drastic measures, there is no manifest necessity and it is an abuse of discretion. Id.

Each count is a separate and independent offense, even though they're on the same indictment, so you can grant a mistrial on just one or two without affecting the others. But I agree with The Other Andrea, keep deliberating a bit longer because 2 1/2 hours isn't very long and you don't want to declare a mistrial too early!

Rookie.

We're all rookies compared to Bradley's serial postings.

I pick quality over quantity any day.

After I deleted my 1000th post, I realized that it takes the context away from Greg's "rookie" comment. For clarification, he's calling me a "rookie."

Delete?

Why delete such greatness as 'Da Bomb!'?

[I'd make a paranthetical sidebar comment here, but they're just too casual.]

P.S. is the slang short for casual 'cas' or 'cash'? or even 'cazh'?

I need a ruling, Newell. And some Zen.

I went with "cazsh" (short for casual) in an early e-mail to Sarah Wolf about how cool you guys are on the Editorial Committee for the Prosecutor. But I was feeling kind of Slavic. (I went with the regular parentheses because it's casual Friday, and "cazsh" parentheses seemed appropriate.)

Is there a phonetic symbol for the z sounding sh, like a cousin to the schwa? (And doesn't this question belong in the appellate thread?)

Perhaps it belongs in the appellate thread, but how about getting an appellate answer instead? According to the pronunciation guide in my dictionary, the sound is spelled "zh". But "cazh" doesn't look right either! Of course, since we don't want to be too cazh, maybe we should just spell out "casual".

What a paradox.

I knew you would have the answer. That is why you are "Da' Bomb".

[This message was edited by David Newell on 05-12-08 at .]

Shh, I'm in my secret identity! Who is this "Westerfeld" you speak of?

I don't know who Westerfeld is. I must've been mistaken . . . yo. I've fixed the offending message.

[This message was edited by David Newell on 05-12-08 at .]