When it is decided to give a majority direction, the jury will be called back into court and asked by the clerk if they have reached a verdict on which they are all agreed.
Not guilty verdict trial#
There will be 12 jurors at the start of any criminal trial (and possibly additional reserve jurors in longer trials) but sometimes jurors are discharged during the trial due to illness or for some other good reason. The minimum number of jurors permitted to return a verdict is 9, so any less would require the trial to be aborted. The judge will not inform the prosecution or defence of the content of a note about numbers, but it might prompt the judge to suggest giving a majority direction if the relevant time limit has passed (see more on majority verdicts below). how many wish to find the defendant guilty and how many not guilty). Juries sometimes send the judge a note about their inability to reach a unanimous verdict, or about their voting numbers (i.e. The jury will then be brought back into court for further instructions, then sent out again to continue their deliberations. All Crown Court trials are audio recorded so the recording can be listened to where there is any dispute about what a witness said in evidence. Where necessary, the judge will invite submissions in open court from the prosecution and defence regarding the best way to respond to the question. However, juries often send notes asking for clarification of legal directions or a reminder of precisely what a witness said. When this happens, the judge will receive the note and pass it to the defence and prosecution advocates. The jury are also not permitted to seek extra evidence themselves, such as through online searches. This means that if the jury send a note asking for additional evidence which was not presented at trial, such as for enquiries to be made from or about a witness, their request will be declined.
Jury Notes - Can the jury ask for help during retirement?īefore retirement the jury will have been told by the judge that they have heard all the evidence in the case and there will be no more evidence presented to them. The jury will also be told not to speak to one another about the case until they are all together in the jury room, since the verdict is a decision for all of them. If the jury do go home overnight, they will be instructed not to speak to anyone outside the jury about the case, simply because by doing so there is a risk of taking into account the view of someone who has not had the advantage of hearing all the evidence. They should not be placed under pressure of time to reach a verdict.
Not guilty verdict free#
Juries will be free to leave court at the end of the day to continue their deliberations the following day. The jury then retire and are taken to a private room to deliberate on their verdict. The jury bailiffs (who up until that moment will have been court ushers) are then sworn to take the jury 'to some private and convenient place' and neither to allow anyone to speak to them nor to speak to the jury themselves, unless it is ‘to ask if they are agreed upon their verdict.’ After receiving their final directions from the judge, the jury will be invited to retire to consider their verdict, to decide if the defendant is Guilty or Not Guilty.
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