In a post here I discussed the procedure a trial judge should follow when a deliberating jury asks to review evidence. In that post I noted that the judge must exercise discretion when responding to the jury’s request. The types of factors that the trial court might consider include: the significance of the evidence; a concern that the jury might give too much emphasis to the evidence that is reviewed and not properly consider the totality of the evidence; and the time, practicality, and difficulty involved with granting the request. I went on to note that after exercising discretion in connection with the request, the judge should expressly state on the record that he or she is granting or denying the request in his or her discretion. The recent case State v. Hatfield, put an exclamation mark on that last point. In Hatfield, the defendant was charged assault on a female (his wife) and assault by pointing a gun (one count for pointing the gun at his wife; one count for pointing it at his baby). At trial the State’s evidence consisted of testimony from the defendant’s wife and a responding officer. The defendant testified in his defense, saying that none of what was alleged occurred. During deliberations, the jury asked to hear a reading of the wife’s testimony. The trial judge responded: We can’t do that because we haven’t done daily copy and so you have to rely on your best recollection among the 12 of you of what it [...]
Faculty Coordinators
