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State v. Alexander12/23/1998
iving the supplemental instruction, the Judge gave the jury the option of continuing deliberations or suspending its efforts until the following day. Moreover, the Judge provided the jury a break about every two hours, except on one occasion when the jury deliberated without a break for, at most, three hours and twenty minutes. Nothing in the record indicates that the jury was overly tired, hungry, frustrated, refused a break, or otherwise under duress at any time during the deliberations.
Accordingly, while the supplemental instruction was potentially coercive and intrusive of the jury deliberation process, we conclude on the record before us that the jury was not coerced to render a guilty verdict. We caution the trial court, however, to exercise its broad discretion carefully in fashioning a response to a jury's indication of deadlock, especially when crafting its own language independent of the model established in Jordan. See Jordan, 130 N.H. at 50, 534 A.2d at 379.
While neither party raised the issue on appeal, see Silva, 142 N.H. at 271-72, 699 A.2d at 593, we note that the trial Judge entered the jury deliberation room with counsel to give further instructions. The jury room is sacrosanct, and neither the Judge nor counsel should invade the jury's domain. See Boynton v. Trumbull, 45 N.H. 408, 410 (1864) (sheriff's presence in jury room during deliberations is manifestly improper); cf. Donahoo v. State, 371 So. 2d 75, 78-79 (Ala. Crim. App. 1979) (to preserve sanctity of jury room, any communication between Judge and jury after submission of case must occur in open court); State v. Mims, 235 N.W.2d 381, 387-88 (Minn. 1975) (judge's uninvited entry into sanctity of jury room offends integrity of proceedings and risks influencing deliberative process). Trial courts have the obligation to scrupulously protect the sanctity of the jury room, cf. Silva, 142 N.H. at 271-72, 699 A.2d at 593, and for the future, we direct that no face-to-face communications between the Judge and the jury prior to the verdict occur in the jury room absent extraordinary circumstances.
Affirmed.
All concurred.
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