Laguerre v. StateLaguerre v. State
Verlaine Laguerre appeals the denial of his plea of former jeopardy on the ground that his retrial for murder and related crimes would violate the federal and state constitutional prohibitions against double jeopardy. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.
On March 20, 2012, a Fulton County grand jury indicted Laguerre and his co-defendant Prentice Baker, and the case proceeded to a joint trial. Although voir dire was not transcribed, the trial court has stated in its order denying Laguerre’s plea of former jeopardy that it informed the jury panel of the attorneys’ estimate that the trial would last seven to nine days.1 The parties agree that jury selection began on Tuesday, December 9, 2014, and, therefore, lasted nearly three days until the State called its first witness late in the afternoon on December 11, 2014.
On the morning of December 17, the trial court reported that on each day during both the week of December 22 and the following week, three to five jurors had conflicts, and that the first time that a complete jury could be back together would be Thursday, January 8, 2015. During an hour-long recess, the trial court and the attorneys went into chambers where they determined that they
Baker acquiesced in a mistrial because of the jurors’ apparent unpreparedness to be in a trial over nine days, and because it would not be in the best interest of the defense if it were blamed or placed in a negative light by continuation of the trial. The prosecutor also acquiesced in a mistrial as the “lesser of two evils,” expressing his concern over the jurors’ ability to recollect all the evidence after an extended break, especially when they were never told that there would be such a break. The prosecutor further emphasized that the jurors had made known their disgust with the duration of the process and its impact on their schedules and that the jurors could be prejudiced against the State or the defense through no fault of the State, just as two prospective jurors had to be excused for cause because of their bias against Laguerre’s counsel due to the length of the voir dire process.
The trial court’s case manager was requested to place her discussions with the jury on the record, and she indicated that because of the length and pace of
Over Laguerre’s objection, the trial court declared a mistrial, stating that the State in its discretion could try the case at a later date. In the subsequent order denying Laguerre’s plea of former jeopardy, the trial court reviewed the circumstances set forth above and expressly found no evidence that the State was benefitted by a delay, engaged in any prosecutorial misconduct, or did anything to induce a mistrial. The court further stated that it had observed the reaction of the jurors during the trial, had carefully considered the alternative of resuming it on January 8, 2015, and was aware of the jury’s frustration with the pace of the trial and with the possibility of recommencement after a prolonged, unanticipated break. The court concluded that, under all the particular facts and circumstances, the jury would not have been able to render a fair verdict and there was a high degree of necessity for a mistrial.
Where, as here, there is no showing of prosecutorial misconduct, the trial court has discretion in determining whether to grant a mistrial. See Laster v. State, 268 Ga. 172, 173 (1) (486 SE2d 153) (1997).
The decisions of this Court and the U. S. Supreme Court emphasize that whether the required degree of necessity for a mistrial has been shown is a matter best judged by the trial court. The propriety of declaring a mistrial in the varying and often unique situations arising during the course of a criminal trial cannot be determined by the application of any mechanical formula.
Harvey, 296 Ga. at 831 (2) (a) (citations and punctuation omitted).
A trial court has acted within its sound discretion in rejecting possible alternatives and in granting a mistrial, if reasonable judges could differ about the proper disposition, even though in a strict, literal sense, the mistrial is not necessary. This great deference means that the availability of another alternative does not without more render a mistrial order an abuse of sound discretion. Deference to the judge’s sound discretion also precludes a reviewing court from assuming, in the absence of record evidence, that the trial judge deprived a defendant of constitutional rights.
Spearman v. State, 278 Ga. 327, 330 (2) (602 SE2d 568) (2004) (citation and punctuation omitted).
The trial judge is not required to make explicit findings of “manifest necessity” nor to articulate on the record all the factors which informed the deliberate exercise of his discretion. However, the record must show that the trial court actually exercised its discretion. For this reason, we have instructed trial courts to give careful, deliberate, and studious consideration to whether the circumstances demand a mistrial, with a keen eye toward other, less drastic, alternatives, calling for a recess if necessary and feasible to guard against hasty mistakes. Where it is clear from the record that the trial court actually exercised its discretion in deciding to grant a mistrial, the Double Jeopardy Clause generally will not bar retrial.
Harvey, 296 Ga. at 832 (2) (a) (citations and punctuation omitted).
As the State has acknowledged, a trial court’s sua sponte declaration of a mistrial may well amount to an abuse of discretion where it is founded on juror convenience without any indication of juror discontent or bias and without any court inquiry into how long jurors in the trial need to be absent, when the trial could resume, or what the effect of a delay would be on the jury’s ability to render a fair verdict. See People v. Michael, 394 NE2d 1134, 1138-1139 (N.Y. 1979); People v. Capellan, 844 NYS2d 578, 581 (Sup. Ct. 2007). In this case, however, the trial court did not act abruptly or hastily. Prior to the day that the mistrial was declared, the court was already concerned about the length of the trial and the continuing availability of the jurors. The trial court knew that the jurors had been selected on the basis of a reasonable expectation of discharge
If an otherwise fair and neutral juror is distracted by some extraneous concern, the integrity of the jury as a unified body focused solely on the trial is diminished. A critical role of a trial judge is to ensure, insofar as possible, that, from the time the jurors swear or affirm they will satisfy the duties and honor the restrictions imposed on juries, until they return a verdict, they will function consistently as a fair, neutral, undistracted unit. [With the assistance of court officers, t]he trial judge exercises a guardian role by instructing the jury, observing it throughout the trial, answering jurors’ questions, dismissing jurors who lapse in the performance of their duties, and ultimately, if manifestly necessary, terminating the trial before the jury reaches a verdict.
State v. Yeboah, 691 NW2d 87, 91-92 (Minn. App. 2005). In that role, the trial court in this case considered how to accommodate juror scheduling problems, but it reasonably decided that the jury unit likely could not be preserved in the circumstances, as more fully explored on the morning of the mistrial. See id. at 92 (holding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in granting a mistrial
That morning, the trial court extensively discussed the matter with counsel for both co-defendants and the State, and the only alternative to a mistrial presented to the court was a nearly three-week continuance. See Spearman, 278 Ga. at 330 (2) (trial court did not err by failing to consider less drastic alternatives to a mistrial where the State presented the court with options involving a continuance and the defendant “was afforded the opportunity to suggest his own alternatives, but chose instead to object to” the State’s proposal). Yet the statement of the trial court’s case manager shows that what especially disturbed the jurors was the prospect that they would have to resume their service in three weeks after the holidays. Laguerre did not dispute that statement, nor did he object to the court’s basing its mistrial decision on the information provided to it on the morning of December 17, 2014. Furthermore, there was a reasonable likelihood that the upset jurors would attribute responsibility for the delay to one of the parties, not unlike the two prospective jurors who, as the trial court noted in its order denying the plea of former
Under the circumstances, the trial judge “acted in order to assure a fair trial, not only for [Laguerre] but for his codefendant and the prosecution as well. He was present and in a far better position than we are to evaluate the complaining jurors’ attitudes.” State v. Eldridge, 562 P2d 276, 281 (Wash. App. 1977). See also Michael, 394 NE2d at 1138 (“The decision whether a mistrial is necessary because of juror bias is often based on subtle indications of discontent, not always apparent on the cold face of the record presented to an appellate court.“). The record reflects that the trial court duly weighed the respective rights of all the parties before electing to declare a mistrial and that prior to announcing the mistrial, it carefully considered the only proposed lesser alternative of a continuance. See Spearman, 278 Ga. at 330 (2). Whether or not the court’s discretion in regard to the conduct of the trial may have permitted it to require interruption of the case and return of the jury in about three weeks,
Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.
Decided May 1, 2017.
Double jeopardy. Fulton Superior Court. Before Judge Campbell.
Paul L. Howard, Jr., District Attorney, Paige Reese Whitaker, David K. Getachew-Smith, Assistant District Attorneys; Christopher M. Carr, Attorney General, Patricia B. Attaway Burton, Deputy Attorney General, Paula K. Smith, Senior Assistant Attorney General, for appellee.