State v. Hinton, 226 N.C. App. 108 (Mar. 19, 2013)

The trial court committed prejudicial error by failing to exercise discretion in responding to the deliberating jury’s request to review evidence. The trial court indicated that the requested information was “not in a form which can be presented to [the jury.]” The court found that this statement “demonstrated a belief that [the trial court] was not capable of complying with the jury’s transcript request” and that as a result the trial court failed to exercise discretion in responding to the jury’s request. [Author’s note: For the proper procedure for responding to such a request by the jury, see my Bench Book section here.]