State of New Jersey v. Thomas J. Fox

Summary

The New Jersey Appellate Division held that a trial judge improperly required jury unanimity before allowing playback of trial testimony during deliberations. Applying plain-error review, the court concluded that the instruction had the clear capacity to produce an unjust result and vacated the defendant’s convictions and sentence, remanding for a new trial. The court also outlined procedures trial judges should follow when responding to jury questions.

Holdings

1. A trial judge may not impose juror unanimity as a condition for narrowing or pursuing a jury request for playback of testimony. Playback requests ordinarily should be granted absent an unusual circumstance, and the judge's unanimity requirement here was an improper exercise of discretion.
2. The unanimity instruction was plain error because it had the clear capacity to produce an unjust result and prejudicially affected defendant's substantial rights; the convictions and sentence therefore had to be vacated.
3. When a jury submits a question, the trial judge should convene counsel, read the question into the record, state the proposed response outside the jury's presence, allow counsel to state their positions and objections on the record, and then provide the response.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the trial judge committed plain error by requiring jury unanimity before arranging playback of requested trial testimony.
2. Whether the evidence sufficiently proved that defendant knew his license was suspended.
3. Whether admission of prior motor-vehicle violations through defendant's driver's abstract required a new trial.
4. Whether the lesser traffic violations should merge into the greater fourth-degree convictions for sentencing purposes.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded