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Third Circuit finds no reversible error in judge telling deadlocked jurors, “the note is you are unable to come to a unanimous decision, but you have to.”

As we just saw with the Lindsay Clancy case, juries can deadlock, leading to a hung jury and a mistrial. So, what should happen when the jury sends a note that they’re deadlocked to the judge, who responds with a supplemental instruction that they must reach a unanimous verdict? That was the question addressed by the Third Circuit in its recent opinion in United States v. Epps, 2026 WL 2451703 (3rd Cir. 2026).

In …

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