State v. Shomo

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

STEIN, J.

In this case the Court considers the validity of partial verdicts returned during the course of jury deliberations in a criminal trial. Here, the court treated as final a verdict on two counts of the four-count indictment against defendant, returned at the end of the first day of the jury's deliberations. The Appellate Division affirmed in an unreported opinion, one member dissenting. Defendant appeals as of right. R. 2:2-l(a).

I

The indictment was based on events that occurred during a barroom fight. While defendant was engaged in an…