91 N.C. App. 511 - State v. Tucker’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Our jury system is designed to insure that a jury’s decision is the result of evidence and argument offered by the contesting parties under the control and guidance of an impartial judge and in accord with the judge’s instructions on the law. All these elements of the trial should be viewed and heard simultaneously by all twelve jurors. To allow a jury foreman, another individual juror, or anyone else to communicate privately with the trial court regarding matters material to the case and then to relay the court’s response to the full jury is inconsistent with this policy. The danger presented is that the person, even the jury foreman, having alone made the request of the court and heard the court’s response firsthand, may through misunderstanding, inadvertent editorialization, or an intentional misrepresentation, inaccurately relay the jury’s request or the court’s response, or both, to the defendant’s detriment. Then, each juror, rather than determining for himself or herself the import of the request and the court’s response, must instead rely solely upon their spokesperson’s secondhand rendition, however inaccurate it may be. Thus, we hold that for the trial court in this case to hear the jury foreman’s inquiry and to respond to it without first requiring the presence of all jurors was an error in violation of N.C.G.S. § 15A-1233.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 160 N.C. App. 564 - State v. Robinson

2. “Although the foreman might have relayed this exact message, he might have as easily have conveyed some altered message or phrased the judge’s response in his own words in such a way as to alter its connotation and its import. The manner in which he reported his request and the response might have led the other jurors to believe the trial court thought the evidence which the jury wanted reviewed unimportant or not worthy of further consideration.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 160 N.C. App. 564 - State v. Robinson

3. “(a) After the jury retires for deliberations, the judge may give appropriate additional instructions to: (1) Respond to an inquiry of the jury made in open court; or (2) Correct or withdraw an erroneous instruction; or (3) Clarify an ambiguous instruction; or (4) Instruct the jury on a point of law which should have been covered in the original instructions.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 160 N.C. App. 564 - State v. Robinson