Majority verdicts are not allowed in civilian criminal cases in the United States. A hung jury results in a
mistrial. The case may be
retried (
United States v. Perez, 1824).
Louisiana, which was historically influenced by the French
civil law system, and
Oregon used to allow 10–2 majority verdicts. In the 2020 case
Ramos v. Louisiana, the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a jury must vote unanimously to convict in any criminal offense that requires a
jury trial. Some jurisdictions permit the court to give the jury a so-called
Allen charge, inviting the dissenting jurors to re-examine their opinions, as a last-ditch effort to prevent the jury from hanging. The
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure state, "The verdict must be unanimous...If there are multiple defendants, the jury may return a verdict at any time during its deliberations as to any defendant about whom it has agreed...If the jury cannot agree on all counts as to any defendant, the jury may return a verdict on those counts on which it has agreed...If the jury cannot agree on a verdict on one or more counts, the court may declare a mistrial on those counts. A hung jury does not imply either the defendant's guilt or innocence. The government may retry any defendant on any count on which the jury could not agree." In jurisdictions giving those involved in the case a choice of jury size (such as between a six-person and twelve-person jury), defense counsel in both civil and criminal cases frequently opt for the larger number of jurors. Research suggests jury size may affect the likelihood of a hung jury, with larger juries increasing the probability of a disagreement and failure to reach a unanimous verdict. A common axiom in criminal cases is that "it takes only one to hang," referring to the fact that in some cases, a single juror can defeat the required unanimity. One proposal for dealing with the difficulties associated with hung juries has been to introduce
supermajority verdicts to allow juries to convict defendants without unanimous agreements amongst the jurors, but this would require amending the U.S. Constitution. For example, a 12-member jury that would otherwise be deadlocked at 11 for conviction and one against might be recorded as a guilty verdict. The rationale for majority verdicts usually includes arguments related to so-called 'rogue jurors', who unreasonably impede the course of justice. Opponents of majority verdicts argue that it undermines public confidence in criminal justice systems and results in a higher number of individuals to be convicted of crimes they did not commit. In United States military justice, there are no hung juries. If the threshold for a conviction is not met, the defendant is acquitted. Article 52 of the
Uniform Code of Military Justice (10 U.S.C. Chapter 47) specifies the minimum number of court-martial panel members required to return a verdict of guilty. In a capital case, a unanimous vote of all panel members is required to convict on a capital charge. In all other cases, only a three-fourths vote is required to convict. Additionally, the
Manual for Courts-Martial requires only a judge and a specified number of panel members in all non-capital cases (eight for a general court-martial or three for a special court-martial; no panel is seated for a summary court-martial). In capital cases, a panel of 12 members is required.
Hung jury in capital sentencing Of the 27 U.S. states with the
death penalty, 25 require the sentence to be decided by a jury. Two states do not use juries in death penalty cases: • In Nebraska the sentence is decided by a three-judge panel, which must unanimously agree on death, and the defendant is sentenced to life imprisonment if one of the judges is opposed. • Montana is the only state where the trial judge decides the sentence alone. Two states do not require a unanimous jury decision: • In Alabama, at least 10 jurors must concur, and a retrial happens if the jury deadlocks. • In Florida, at least 8 jurors (two-thirds) must concur, and the prosecution can pursue a retrial if the jury deadlocks. In all states in which the jury is involved, only
death-qualified prospective jurors can be selected in such a jury, to exclude both people who will always vote for the death sentence and those who are categorically opposed to it. However, the states differ on what happens if the penalty phase results in a hung jury: • In five states (Alabama, Arizona, California, Kentucky and Nevada), a retrial of the penalty phase will be conducted before a different jury (the common-law rule for
mistrial). • In two states (Indiana and Missouri), the judge will decide the sentence. • In the remaining states, a hung jury results in a
life sentence, even if only one juror opposed death. Federal law also provides that outcome. The first outcome is referred as the "true unanimity" rule, while the third has been criticized as the "single-juror veto" rule. ==References==