A Jury in a Massachusetts OUI charge normally is before a jury of Six.\u00a0 Recently I had a trial in Quincy District Court where we proceeded with a jury of five people.\u00a0 As is typical in the District Court, the court did not have enough jurors.\u00a0 Rather than picking another date, I told the judge my client would be willing to waive his right to a six person jury and have the case heard by Five instead.\u00a0 With the consent of the district attorney and the defendant, the court can allow a trial to proceed with five jurors.\u00a0 If this situation arises, because it is unusual, you may have to inform the judge that the law allows for a five person jury under these circumstances.\u00a0 As a defense attorney, the calculation is whether you like the five potentially sitting in the box versus coming back on another date.\u00a0 I felt as though the five individuals selected could be fair and it did not make a difference to me that there was one less juror.\u00a0 In fact, had the last juror not been excluded for cause by the judge; I would have asked the judge before striking the juror if he would allow me to strike that juror and go with five instead.<\/p>\n
The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 12 of the Declaration of Rights normally require a six person jury, but the law allow the number to be reduced to five upon agreement of all parties. \u00a0The law does not permit a defendant to have a jury less than five even with the agreement of the parties. \u00a0Some judges will not allow a trial to proceed with five.<\/p>\n
If you have questions about the court process when charged with OUI, feel free to contact Attorney DelSignore<\/a>. \u00a0We have encountered almost every issue that comes up in court and with the RMV. \u00a0Feel free to reach out on Facebook<\/a> if you have questions as well where we posted updates to the law.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Jury in a Massachusetts OUI charge normally is before a jury of Six.\u00a0 Recently I had a trial in Quincy District Court where we proceeded with a jury of five people.\u00a0 As is typical in the District Court, the court did not have enough jurors.\u00a0 Rather than picking another date, I told the judge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-offense-oui"],"yoast_head":"\n