Page 3 - Dynamite Charge News Today

Think that after this jury of seven men and five women who have been bussed in from a neighboring county, and theyve been sequestered for the last of this trial -- do you think theyre going to get this figured out? >> well, my experience is that, generally, the allen charge, when its been this long, will not dynamite the jury. thats what we nickname it is the dynamite charge. because people are already entrenched. and you know, its outlawed in many states, although its still viable in the federa...

Holdout juror, a single holdout juror or maybe a small group of holdout jurors, holding it as against the majority, who maybe have come to a different conclusion about guilt or innocence. and what were hearing now is a report of a deadlocked jury. thats followed by what is traditionally called the dynamite charge, which is given by the judge to the jury, essentially saying, you have an obligation to go back, to deliberate in good faith and to try to reach a decision, because youre better equippe...

Telling bill cosby? >> look, im telling you right now, youre hanging on by the skin of -- your bare knuckles and skin. this is the difference between life and death for him in the sense if he gets convicted, if the jurors convict him, he will get automatically remanded. hell spend the rest of his life in prison. if he doesnt get convicted, its entirely likely this case wont get retried. this is really the big game. this is it. if youre the legal team and ive been there so many times when a jury ...

Juries come back like within an hour after getting the so-called allen or dynamite charge, with a verdict. so, the opposite can happen. that can be the one thing that gets that recallous trant juror or group of jurors to say you know something, maybe i should take a second look at my thoughts here, and you get a quick verdict then. so, it will be sort of a tense couple of hours now to come as people wonder whether were going to have a verdict or not. >> absolutely. one high-profile attorney to h...

About, but do you see this? how often does a jury, when a judge says go back and give it another go, do they figure it out, or do you think this is more likely to be a mistrial than not? >> i agree with paul, its probably like a split thats like 10-2, 11-1, 9-3, and they just cant get the last three to join with the majority. the so-called allen charge, what paul called the dynamite charge, that says look, guys, nobody can do this better than you, as paul said, and please do it one more time. of...

Theyre trying to decide if he drugged and sexually assaulted andrea constand some 13 years ago. heres a look at the jury panel. seven men, five women. theyve been deliberating for more than 30 hours. bill cosby faces up to 30 years if hes convicted. ive got areeva martin and mark geragos here. 30 hours. what can be the reason so far? >> because its a hung jury. i said during jury selection that this was going to be a deadlocked jury. it does not surprise me in the least given the racial and gend...

And two men and so it really cuts the deliberation time in half and here the jury said we are hopelessly deadlock, apparently there was a single juror who was unwilling to vote to convict, its unclear whether the judge issued an alan charge, dynamite charge to jurors urging them to reconsider and if theres a long holdout, you should consider the fact that youre all by yourself and your colleagues on the jury are unpersuaded. thats called a dynamite charge to try to dislodge that single juror. it...

Phone, cnn legal analyst, danny cevallos was just seated and boris sanchez has been following this in north charleston. paul callan, let me begin with you because i know you were throng this from the beginning. what was the judge doing there? >> well, the judge was giving what is called in the federal system an allen charge, sometimes its called the dynamite charge and its a charge the judge always gives when a jury reports theyre deadlocked. obviously after a lengthy controversial trial we dont...

Issues to grapple with. >> this was a five-week trial which is not terribly long, not terribly short for this kind of charge. if theyve only been deliberating for a couple days -- i love when you say "allen charge." its what they used to call dynamite charge. where they tried to dynamite those jurors back into action. it works, weirdly enough it works very often and then it doesnt at times as well. and the fear is when you force a jury back into a room to make a decision they may change their mi...

Come back into the courtroom and we will charge the case on that count. you may now retire for further deliberations and we will provide you a copy of this instruction. >> sure enough, the judge read whats known as a dynamite charge, an allen charge, its a standard jury instruction in most jurisdictions of the wording approved by higher courts that really tries to get the jurors who are hung up on one or more counts to go back to the jury room and try to reach a consensus. you heard the judge re...