Actually, you kinda need to convince your fellow jurors.
Hung jury is a mistrial. Mistrial means the prosecution can try again. (Double Jeopardy doesn’t apply to mistrials) If you were the only one who voted not-guilty, chances are, the next jury will vote unanimously guilty.
Its very easy to get kicked off jury before deliberations, so what you wanna do is: After deliberations begin, try to covertly nudge your fellow jurors. For example, if the suspect did not say anything that’s a confession, say “Are y’all sure this is the guy, I feel like he’s been set up.” Make excuses on why he might not be the perpetrator.
Only when you are sure that you don’t have a unanimous “not-guilty” then try to say things like: “But should we really convict this guy when the CEO that died was a horrible person?” Just try not to say “jury nullification”, keep making excuses on why you are voting “not-guilty”.
If you manage to convince your fellow jurors to all vote “not-guilty” then the suspect is free. Otherwise, it just get tried again and its another roll of dice on the next jury.
Ideally, yes, convince your fellow jurors. But if you can’t… a mistrial is still good. A new trial means a chance to change strategy with more information. Witnesses forget things, start changing up their stories. And there’s a chance the state will not retry - trials are expensive and time consuming, and a successful prosecution becomes less likely with each mistrial.
If you want to vote not guilty, you can. For whatever reason you choose.
You don’t need to convince fellow jurors, you don’t need to convince the judge. Vote your conscience and shut up about the reasons.
Actually, you kinda need to convince your fellow jurors.
Hung jury is a mistrial. Mistrial means the prosecution can try again. (Double Jeopardy doesn’t apply to mistrials) If you were the only one who voted not-guilty, chances are, the next jury will vote unanimously guilty.
Its very easy to get kicked off jury before deliberations, so what you wanna do is: After deliberations begin, try to covertly nudge your fellow jurors. For example, if the suspect did not say anything that’s a confession, say “Are y’all sure this is the guy, I feel like he’s been set up.” Make excuses on why he might not be the perpetrator.
Only when you are sure that you don’t have a unanimous “not-guilty” then try to say things like: “But should we really convict this guy when the CEO that died was a horrible person?” Just try not to say “jury nullification”, keep making excuses on why you are voting “not-guilty”.
If you manage to convince your fellow jurors to all vote “not-guilty” then the suspect is free. Otherwise, it just get tried again and its another roll of dice on the next jury.
Ideally, yes, convince your fellow jurors. But if you can’t… a mistrial is still good. A new trial means a chance to change strategy with more information. Witnesses forget things, start changing up their stories. And there’s a chance the state will not retry - trials are expensive and time consuming, and a successful prosecution becomes less likely with each mistrial.
If you want to vote not guilty, you can. For whatever reason you choose.