Benefield v. State

I respectfully dissent because the majority’s holding is based upon its misidentification of the issue presented for resolution in this *467case. This Court granted certiorari to review the holding in Benefield v. State, 264 Ga. App. 511 (591 SE2d 404) (2003) that no reversible violation of the accused’s right to a jury poll occurred when, despite a juror’s negative response to one of the two questions posed by the trial court, further deliberations were not conducted. There is precedent for the proposition that such a violation can result when a trial court ignores a juror’s negative poll answer…