State v. Athorn

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Proctor, J.

This is an interlocutory appeal by the State from the trial court’s order directing an interrogation of the jurors who had returned a verdict of guilty against the defendant. The Appellate Division granted the State’s motion for leave to appeal, and while the appeal was pending we certified the case.

On September 28, 1964, a jury in the Essex County Court found the defendant, a Newark police officer, guilty of extortion and misconduct in office. About a month later, the court received notice from the prosecutor that one of the jurors alleged…