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Hung Jury

A jury which is unable to arrive at a required unanimous or near unanimous verdict.

A jury is required to make a unanimous or near unanimous verdict.

When the jurors, after full debate and discussion, are unable to agree on a verdict and are deadlocked with differences of opinion that appear to be irreconcilable, it is said to be a "hung jury".

The result is a mistrial.

The office of the Attorney General for California defines a hung jury as: "A hung jury occurs when jurors cannot unanimously agree on a verdict of either guilty or not guilty, followed by the judge declaring a mistrial. The case may or may not be retried, at the discretion of the prosecutor."


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Unless otherwise noted, this article was written by Lloyd Duhaime, Barrister, Solicitor, Attorney and Lawyer (and Notary Public!). It is not intended to be legal advice and you would be foolhardy to rely on it in respect to any specific situation you or an acquaintance may be facing. In addition, the law changes rapidly and sometimes with little notice so from time to time, an article may not be up to date. Therefore, this is merely legal information designed to educate the reader. If you have a real situation, this information will serve as a good springboard to get legal advice from a lawyer.

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