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Maryland Criminal Verdicts Must be Unanimous


In Maryland, all criminal verdicts must be unanimous. That is, all the jurors must agree on the guilt or innocence of the criminal defendant. This is required by the Maryland Constitution and by the Criminal Rules. Under current Rules, a criminal jury is made up of 12 persons, with two alternate jurors sometimes chosen. Usually, alternative jurors are chosen when a criminal case is expected to take more than a week.

In addition, any verdict — decision — reached by a criminal jury must be “rendered” publicly. That is, the verdict must be made public and the jury must be polled by the judge to ensure that the verdict is/was, in fact, unanimous. The old-fashioned term for this polling — still in use — is called the “hearkening of the verdict.” Failure of the judge to engage in the required steps to render the verdict almost always results in the verdict being overturned on appeal, with the defendant receiving a new trial. This is a very old procedure first set forth in Givens v. State, 76 Md. 485 (1893). The three steps in the rendition of the jury’s verdict are these:

  • An oral and public announcement of the verdict
  • Polling of the jury — that is, each juror is asked if he or she agrees with and voted for the verdict and 
  • The hearkening of the verdict — in effect, a second polling of the jury

The hearkening is usually asked by the judge or the court clerk and goes something like: “Do you hearken to your verdict, as the court hath recorded it. You say that ––– is guilty (or not guilty) of the matter whereof he/she stands indicted, and so say you all?” As said, this is one last chance for a juror to say that he or she did not/does not agree with the verdict.

What Happens if the Jury Cannot Agree?

There are cases where the members of the jury cannot come to an agreement even after many hours and days of deliberating. In such cases, the jury is commonly called a “hung jury.” Note that a jury might be able to agree on some charges but cannot agree on ALL of the charges. That is a case of a partially hung jury.

Generally, the procedure is that the jury will send a note out to the judge saying that they are deadlocked — hung — and cannot reach an agreement on the verdict. The judge usually will require the jury to keep deliberating. This may happen a couple different times.

Eventually, however, if the jury cannot reach an agreement, then the judge will declare what is called a “mistrial.” When that happens, the trial is deemed finished. However, the defendant is not deemed to be guilty or innocent, and the case is not dismissed. The prosecuting attorneys are allowed to begin a new trial.

A hung jury is generally a “good” thing for a criminal defendant, if only because there was no “guilty” verdict. But it often leads to a new round of plea bargaining, which might result in a more reasonable offer. This is because the prosecuting attorneys have learned that their case was not as solid as they thought and it is time-consuming to conduct a second trial.

Contact Waldorf, Maryland Criminal Defense Lawyer Robert Castro Today

This article has been provided by the Law Office of Robert Castro. For more information or questions, contact our office to speak to an experienced Maryland criminal defense lawyer at (301) (301) 870-1200. We are Waldorf, MD, Criminal Defense lawyers. Our address is 2670 Crain Highway, Waldorf, MD 20601.

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