Talk:Hung jury

The opening sentence seems unnecessarily confusing to me: "A hung jury is a jury whose required majority can not reach or agree upon a unanimous verdict after an extended period of deliberation and is deadlocked with irreconcilable differences of opinion." "required majority" implies that something other than unanimous consent is needed, but later in the same sentence the word unanimous is used. Which is it? I'm not a lawyer, so I'm not going to correct it, but this is confusing. Also "reach or agree upon" seems redundant. 24.59.194.44 13:19, 23 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed these need to be addressed 74.132.209.231 05:38, 1 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent observation. The article is mixing up the criminal and civil law perspectives. I tried to simplify and clarify.Qball6 02:37, 15 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

hung jury

In the definition of "hung jury" it states "majority can not reach or agree upon a unanimous verdict after an extended period deliberation". How long is "extended period of time"?

In most cases a verdict needs a unanimous vote from 12 jurors to convict or acquit the defendant; but other municipalities use a majority vote. So all twelve would not necessarily agree, but the majority will decide the verdict.

Will there be a new trail in the Phil Spector case, which ended in a mistrial because of a hung jury?

The prosecution will decide whether it wants to re-try the case. Ellsworth 14:38, 3 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Removal of Scotland

It seems unnecessary to specify countries where a hung jury can not occur. Scotland might be a part of the UK but that does not merit its inclusion if the practice does not take place there. Northern Ireland is not included while it is part of the UK. However, the sentence says a hung jury can not occur in criminal cases, implying that one can occur in civil cases. If this is the case that information should be added. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.210.197.230 (talk) 20:46, 18 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know what happens in civil trials in Scotland, if anyone knows please add it. For all I know Scotland could be unique in not allowing the possibility of a hung jury, if so worthy of note. PatGallacher (talk) 19:08, 19 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]