People v. Spencer

Tom, J.P.,

dissents in a memorandum as follows: Because the trial court failed to conduct a tactful and probing inquiry to ascertain whether a juror was capable of rendering an impartial verdict and because the court, in further instructing the jury, failed to emphasize the need to arrive at a verdict without requiring any single juror to surrender her conscientious belief, the record does not afford an adequate basis for this Court to conclude that the verdict was not the result of coercion, and a new trial is required.

On the morning of the fourth day of deliberations, after the alternate…