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by NovemberWhiskey 1440 days ago
>But a hung jury can be retried infinitely

A hung jury is just one of the causes of a mistrial; and the net effect of a mistrial is that no verdict is reached. The common law has no prohibition on retrying a defendant after a mistrial.

1 comments

well the argument is that if the state is so inconpetent that it keeps mistrying an individual, then that's potentially harrasment of an innosent person and can't be allowed
You get mistrials due to defendant counsel misconduct, or juror misconduct, too.
Given the role of a jury as ground truth to the legal system, it's rather dangerous to hold that a jury can "misbehave".

Jury nullification, as controversial as it is, is an important escape valve and check on the system. Prosecutors and judges just don't like it because it threatens stare decisis.