A JURY’S FAILURE TO RENDER A VERDICT ON A COUNT OF AN INDICTMENT IS THE EQUIVALENT OF AN ACQUITTAL ON THAT COUNT 4TH DEPT.

The Fourth Department noted that the absence of a verdict on a count of an indictment is the equivalent of an acquittal on that count:

Defendant contends that the judgment must be modified by reversing those parts convicting him under counts 9 and 10 of the indictment because he was not indicted in count 9, which charged two codefendants with criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and the jury did not render a verdict on count 10. As the People correctly concede, defendant is correct. It is well settled that “[t]he New York State Constitution guarantees that [n]o person shall be held to answer for a[n] infamous crime . . . unless on indictment of a grand jury’ ” … , and defendant was not charged in count 9 of the indictment. Although defendant was charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree in count 10 of the indictment, the jury did not render a verdict on that count. It is well settled that a jury’s failure to render a verdict upon every count upon which it was instructed to do so “constitutes an acquittal on every count on which no verdict was rendered”… . We therefore modify the judgment by reversing those parts convicting defendant under counts 9 and 10, and by dismissing count 10 of the indictment with respect to defendant. People v Samuel, 2017 NY Slip Op 05542, 4th Dept 7-7-17

CRIMINAL LAW (A JURY’S FAILURE TO RENDER A VERDICT ON A COUNT OF AN INDICTMENT IS THE EQUIVALENT OF AN ACQUITTAL ON THAT COUNT 4TH DEPT)/VERDICTS (CRIMINAL LAW, A JURY’S FAILURE TO RENDER A VERDICT ON A COUNT OF AN INDICTMENT IS THE EQUIVALENT OF AN ACQUITTAL ON THAT COUNT 4TH DEPT)