The trial court erred when it discharged a juror during guilt phase deliberations for failing to deliberate and for bias against the police and the prosecution. (PC § 1089.) In this case, the record did not support that Juror No. 5 was refusing to deliberate, where he had been deliberating for the better part of three court days before it was reported that further discussion would not alter his views, and he had shared with his jurors the reasons for his view of the prosecution’s evidence. Nor did the record support that Juror No. 5 was biased against the prosecution. While there was no dispute that Juror No. 5 had formed a negative view of the prosecution’s case, the complaints against Juror No. 5 show that he was rejecting, not disregarding, the prosecution’s evidence, and the record as a whole indicated that his rejection was based on the evidence adduced at trial.

The full opinion is available on the court’s website here: https://www4.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/S169750.PDF