- Court: Oregon Court of Appeals
- Area(s) of Law: Criminal Law
- Date Filed: 10-30-2024
- Case #: A179402
- Judge(s)/Court Below: Shorr, Mooney, Pagan; written by Shorr
- Full Text Opinion
State v. Lewis, 335 Or App 685 (2024).
Defendant was convicted of felony rioting. The trial court delivered a dead-locked jury instruction, inquired into the juror’s vote composition and required them to keep deliberating past 5pm. Defendant objected to the first, but not the second, and moved for a mistrial on the third. Defendant was denied. He appealed, arguing the second issue was a plain error; the first issue was coercive under the circumstances; and the cumulative effect of the foregoing was unconstitutional. The state argued the second was not preserved; the first was not coercive as it does not direct how the jury should resolve the deadlock; and the deliberation was not so long as to require a mistrial. The Court of Appeals found he did not preserve the second issue and that it was not a plain error; that the instructions were not coercive because they merely instructed the jury to continue deliberations, the trial court’s knowledge of the votes was not dispositive, and the subsequent time spent deliberating indicated no coercion; finally, denying a mistrial on 7.5 hours of deliberation for an eight-day trial was within the range of legally correct outcomes, and therefore, the trial court did not err. Affirm.