Benefield v. State

The trial court should have returned the jury to the jury room for further deliberation in an effort to arrive at a unanimous verdict after the twelfth juror gave a negative response to a jury poll question.

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We granted certiorari to the Court of Appeals in Benefield v. State , 264 Ga. App. 511 591 SE2d 404 2003, to determine whether a criminal defendant’s right to a poll of the jurors was violated when the trial court received a negative response to a poll question posed to a juror, and no further deliberation occurred. We answer in the affirmative and reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals. Walter Clifford Benefield was found guilty by a jury of three counts of aggravated child molestation and one count of child molestation. After the verdict was published, Benefield’s counsel requested that the jury be polled. In accordance with that request, the trial court asked each of the jurors whether the published verdict was their verdict in the jury room and whether it was still their verdict. The twelfth juror responded “no” to the first poll question. Neither defense counsel, the prosecutor, nor the court reacted to the response. The trial court then asked that juror the second question, “is it now your verdict,” to which the juror responded “yes.” At the conclusion of the poll, the court informed the jury, “if any of you had said that it is not your verdict that was published or it is not your verdict now, what I would have done would have been sent you back to the jury room and let you deliberate again.” The court then entered judgment and sentenced the defendant.

Benefield appealed to the Court of Appeals, raising for the first time a claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel due to counsel’s failure to object to the jury poll. By order, the Court of Appeals remanded the case to the trial court for a hearing on that issue.1 On remand, the trial court ruled that any ambiguity in the verdict was removed when the juror replied affirmatively to the second question, and that Benefield was not denied effective assistance of trial counsel.

Benefield v. State

The trial court should have returned the jury to the jury room for further deliberation in an effort to arrive at a unanimous verdict after the twelfth juror gave a negative response to a jury poll question.

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