People v. Miller

Court polled the jury after its guilty verdict against Defendant, asking “was this then and is this now your verdict.” Eight jurors answered “yes.” The ninth juror did not immediately answer, and moments later said “that’s now my verdict,” in which Court responded that it was going to ask the jury to continue deliberating. When the juror reiterated that it was “now” their verdict twice, Court moved on. On appeal, Defendant argued, in part, that Court did not conduct an adequate inquiry of the ninth juror. Since Defendant did not contemporaneously object to the trial court’s conduct, plain error review applies. Under these circumstances, the jury verdict was unanimous, and no error occurred. The juror made no request to change his vote, and stated his vote before Court’s response regarding further deliberation. Court’s response was not so serious as to have affected the fairness of the trial or the integrity of the judicial process.