California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Brim, 2d Crim. No. B275782 (Cal. App. 2018):
The trial court must exercise caution "in determining whether a juror has refused to deliberate." (Cleveland, supra, 25 Cal.4th at p. 475.) "The very act of questioning deliberating jurors about the content of their deliberations could affect those deliberations." (Id. at p. 476.) The trial court must take care not to undermine the sanctity of jury deliberations and to avoid coercing minority jurors. (Id. at p. 483.) "[W]hen inquiring into asserted misconduct of a member of a deliberating jury, the court should take care that any inquiry 'minimize pressure on legitimate minority jurors' [citation], and the court should not conduct an inquiry that could 'risk[] pressuring the dissenting
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juror to conform her vote to that of the majority.' [Citation.]" (People v. Engelman (2002) 28 Cal.4th 436, 446.)
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