Excused DUI jury never made it out of box
Interesting DUI procedural case out of Los Angeles, California.
The trial judge mistakenly discharged the jury after they found the defendant guilty, and forgot to ask them to decide the issue of the defendant’s prior conviction. The prosecutor brought it to the judge’s attention immediately and the judge then charged them to go and decide the issue.
Here, the defense argued that the rule that once a jury is released they can’t be reconvened. However, the jury in this case, following its discharge, literally never made it out of the box.
The Cite: People v. Kimbell, Court of Appeals of California, Published on November 25, 2008.
Relevant quote from the opinion:
Here, the jury had not even left the jury box when the prosecution brought the irregularity to the court’s attention. There is no contention the jury was exposed to any outside influence. Nor is there any contention Kimbell was prejudiced. Instead, Kimbell attempts to hold the trial court to a hard and fast rule that the jury may not be reconvened once verbally told they were excused by the court. Shaffer and Hendricks hold otherwise.
My Comments: Good ruling. Reversal of conviction on this issue would undermine the sanity and credibility of the justice system. The backlash would have been worse than the trial court’s mistake, amounting to getting off “on a technicality.” While I typically side with the defense and want to err on the side of protecting Constitutional safeguards, I also route for the integrity of the justice system, and here integrity prevailed.
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