A. A jury that cannot reach a verdict by the required voting margin.
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to pronunciation.Legal Definition -
A jury that cannot reach a verdict by the required voting margin. - Also termed deadlocked jury.
Black's Law Dictionary® Eighth Edition © 2004
Recent Usage -
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday appeared troubled by a Pennsylvania case in which a defendant whose conviction and life sentence was reversed on appeal was sentenced to death at his second trial. Much of Monday's oral argument was spent trying to determine how the outcome of Sattazahn's first trial should be characterized: as an acquittal of the death penalty, which would trigger double jeopardy, or merely as a hung jury, which would not. Chief Justice William Rehnquist repeatedly pronounced it a hung jury, but Assistant Federal Public Defender Robert Dunham insisted it was "not a hung jury in a traditional sense." Dunham added, "Any failure by the state to prove its case to a unanimous jury constitutes an acquittal." In Sattazahn's case, Dunham said, a mistrial was not called, but rather a final judgment entered -- a sentence of life in prison. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens seemed persuaded by the point. Tony Mauro ALM November 5, 2002