United States v. Altieri
United States v. Altieri
Opinion of the Court
SUMMARY ORDER
Defendant-appellant Francis Altieri appeals from a judgment issued on August 27, 2007, 2007 WL 2438391, by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Buchwald, J.), denying his motion to dismiss the indictment on double-jeopardy grounds. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the facts and the procedural history of this case.
Altieri argues that subjecting him to retrial would constitute double jeopardy because the district court ordered a mistrial over his objections and in the absence of manifest necessity. “We review the decision of a trial court that there is manifest necessity to declare a mistrial for abuse of discretion,” United States v. Razmilovic, 507 F.3d 130, 137 (2d Cir. 2007), and “[w]e grant particularly broad discretion” when the trial court’s manifest necessity determination is based on juror deadlock, id.
Our review of the record reveals that the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the jury was “genuinely deadlocked.” See United States v.
Finally, we reject Altieri’s argument that the district court abused its discretion because it did not consider alternatives to declaring a mistrial. The court instructed the jurors that they could consider issuing a partial verdict with respect to any charges on which they had reached unanimity and, as noted, the jury did so. See Razmilovic, 507 F.3d at 139 (stating that “instructing the jury about the possibility of reaching a partial verdict” is one alternative to a mistrial that we consider under manifest necessity review). Although the district judge considered the possibility of declaring a mistrial for all consenting defendants but instructing the jury to continue to deliberate with respect to Altieri, she declined, in her own judgment, to adopt this alternative after further thought. This decision was not an abuse of discretion, nor did it, as Altieri suggests, usurp the strategic role reserved to defense counsel. The district court has an independent obligation to consider whether requiring the jury to continue deliberations despite indications of juror deadlock would introduce the risk of a coerced or improper verdict. See id. at 138 (“[W]e are particularly cognizant of the possibility that coercion of an already exhausted jury to continue deliberations may induce jurors to accommodate a verdict which they would not otherwise support.” (alteration and internal quotation marks omitted)).
For the foregoing reasons, we AFFIRM the district court’s judgment.
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