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Resolving The Conflict Between The Temporarily Unavailable Juror And New York's Mandatory 24-Hour Limit On The Separation Of Jurors During Deliberations, Michael Pasinkoff

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Allowing defendants to move for and obtain mistrials based upon a delay in resuming jury deliberations does nothing to render the process fairer or to protect any right of a defendant. Granting these applications in the absence of prejudice to a defendant wastes scarce and valuable judicial resources, requires the state to unnecessarily retry a case, and makes witnesses again take time from their lives to testify in court. Indeed, in many cases, a defendant is afforded a tactical advantage by forcing the state to retry the case. There are of course occasions when the law accepts conferring a …