What Is A Hung Jury and How Can That Result in a Mistrial?
In a criminal case the verdict must be unanimous. A hung jury occurs when all 12 jurors can’t come to a unanimous decision either 12 – 0 for guilty or 12 – 0 for acquittal. When the judge determines that further deliberations won’t result in a unanimous verdict he announces that the jury is deadlocked and declares a mistrial. A mistrial can result in a whole new trial. It is up to the prosecutor to pursue a new trial or dismiss the case. The prosecutor can retry the case as many times as it takes to get a verdict or until he decides not to pursue it. Eventually the judge can decide to dismiss the case if he decides that there is no likelihood of a conviction being attained by the DA. You may have heard of double jeopardy. The US constitution says that a defendant cannot be tried twice for the same crime. So how come the defendant can be tried two or more times just because the jury can’t reach a unanimous verdict? Isn’t he being tried twice for the same crime? The answer to that is sim
