Christopher Schurr Trial: What Happens with a Deadlocked Jury?

The jury in the Christopher Schurr trial is deadlocked after 2 days of deliberation. Professor emeritus at Cooley Law School Lewis Langham joins us once again to discuss what happens next. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's talk a little bit more about the anatomy of
a deadlock jury. This is West Michigan's Morning News. Steve
Kelly and Brett Makita back on the liveline. Professor Emeritus
at Cooley Law School, Lewis Langham, thanks for being available again.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Not a problem that'd be here.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
So we talked yesterday about the choices that the jury had,
and now we know that for whatever they were voting on, right,
could it be second degree murder, manslaughter or you know,
full acquittal, they do not have one hundred percent of
them on the same page. Right, That's what deadlock means

(00:36):
and why the vote.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, so that's exactly what that means. And more than
likely they have voted on and considered vote and they
are probably deadlock more than likely on vote offenses, whether
or not it's second degree murder or manslaughter. And they're
having a very tough challenge here, and I understand what too.

(00:59):
So it's interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
So, yeah, let's talk a little bit about what goes
into that. So they got to say, and there's a captain,
there's somebody that sort of takes charge from the inside there,
let's vote on innocent, let's vote on and then they
they where they're not close, so they got to they
got to say after they vote, we can't come to
a conclusion.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yes, so we don't know exactly where the numbers are
breaking down, whether or not you have six jurors for
guilty and six jurors or not guilty. We don't know
where those numbers are, but more than likely, as I've indicated,
they have probably discussed both charges.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
So does it matter. Do the numbers matter? Because what
we're building to then is when does the judge say, Okay,
we got to try this all over again.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yes, the numbers really don't matter as long as the
needle isn't moving in one way or another to get
a verdict. And the judge may not even be aware
more than likely not as to what those numbers are
just just sends them back to deliberate and continue deliberations.
As far as where the breakdown is, that said, we

(02:08):
don't know. But this is the key. At the end
of this trial. Let's say the jury ends up ends
up in hung jury, the judge declares a mistrial. Let's
say at the end of the day today, the prosecution
of defense will eventually learn and know what the breakdown
was if it was something along the lines of ten
to two or four acquittal of the police officer, the

(02:32):
prosecution is going to recharge, but they may not recharge
with second degree murder. If they're losing that much, maybe
their charges might be considered too high. The prosecute is
going to have to decide whether or not we should
just put manslaughter as the high charge, and maybe Polonius assault,

(02:55):
which is a four year felony, is a second charge.
So some decisions would have to be made if this
ended up being a hung jury by the prosecutor.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Interesting, Professor, I've got a question as far as the
jurors and Steve has been in this situation and people
have talked to it's real interesting when they're done with
their trial and the thoughts of the process and everything,
and so I want to ask you what is what
are they being told? What's the protocol as far as
you know, determining their own opinion on this for their vote.

(03:25):
They can't talk to anybody, can't talk to family, right can?
I mean they have to just kind of stay on lockdown.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
That is that is correct that they will they will
be in lockdown and and and this jury, this jury
is having a hard time, I think because the video
footage of what happened really and under most certain you
would most would think that the footage may have some
benefit to one side or the other. But the video footage,

(03:54):
really I believe helps defense a little bit more because
I am the jury is not going to ignore and
this is why they're probably hung. The jury is not
going to ignore the two and a half the three
minutes worth of resisting by Patrick Leoya. You can't just

(04:14):
sum that up and to say he didn't deserve to die, well,
I'm sure the jurors wish he had not died, but
you can't just sum it up just by saying that
without the jurors analyzing and discussing the length of time
that Patrick Leola resisted and his involvement and what automately

(04:36):
happened to him. And I think that's probably where the
jurors hung up. They are not going to ignore what
Officer Christopher Sure did and they aren't going to ignore
what Patrick Leola did.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
And listen, man, I get it. You either if you're
just a regular person not on the jury, are on
the side of Leoya, or you're on the side of
law enforcement. In general, but that ain't how it works.
Once you get to the court of the law and
the judge tells you what you can pay attention to
what you can pay attention last fast question, because we're

(05:08):
out of time. How many times can they say we're
deadlocked before they declare this a mistrial or have to
do it again.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
There is no magic number, but if it gets to
three times, they say that I can't see it ever
going to the fourth time.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
Great stuff is always Professor Emeritus the Cooler Law, Lewis Langham,
Thanks for your time today.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
Thank you