Bell v. Mississippi
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Donald Bell appealed his conviction and sentence for attempted armed robbery. The jury returned from deliberations and informed the court that they had failed to reach a unanimous decision. Learning the jury was split nine-to-three, the judge instructed them to go back and deliberate
one more time. Prior to releasing them for further deliberations, he stated to the jury: "But I don’t want you going back there just being stubborn. Go back there with the seriousness of purpose because you came here to do a job and if we can get a unanimous decision from you, we would like to." Defense counsel immediately moved for a mistrial, arguing that the court’s comment “place[d] undue pressure on those three individuals at this point to make up - come to a decision when their consci[ence] didn’t allow them to issue a conclusion.” That motion was denied. The jury returned its verdict, and Bell was sentenced to a five-year term of imprisonment. The Supreme Court reversed, finding that the trial judge’s comments to the jurors before sending them back for further deliberations were impermissibly suggestive and capable of being interpreted as coercive. The case was remanded for a new trial.
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