Jerome v. Commonwealth
Annotate this Case
The Supreme Court affirmed in part and vacated in part the judgment of the trial court convicting Defendant of burglary in the first degree, rape in the first degree, kidnapping, violation of an EPO/DVO, and terroristic threatening, holding that the trial court erred in imposing Defendant's sentence.
During penalty phase deliberations, Juror 8 informed the bailiff that she no longer wanted to deliberate. The judge excused the juror and told Defendant he could either waive his right to a twelve-person jury and allow an eleven-person jury to decide his sentence or allow the judge to make the sentencing decision. Defendant objected to eleven jurors, and so the judge decided the sentence. The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's convictions but vacated his sentence, holding the trial court erred by failing to conduct a sufficiently searching inquiry to determine Juror 8's potential inability to be fair or impartial and then by excusing the juror. The Court remanded the case for a new penalty phase.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.