United States v. Warren Brown, A/K/A Prince Asiel

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge MIKVA.

MIKVA, Circuit Judge:

Appellants were convicted of a wide variety of criminal charges after thirteen weeks of trial and eight weeks of jury deliberations. We find that the district court’s dismissal of a juror in the midst of the jury’s lengthy deliberations deprived the appellants of their constitutional right to a unanimous jury. We must therefore reverse the convictions.

I. Background

All nine of the appellants in this case are members of a religious group formally titled the “Original Hebrew Israelite Nation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem” and…