OCIE JENKINS, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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STONE, Judge.
We reverse Appellant’s conviction and remand for a new trial.
While the trial court was in the process of responding to a jury question raised during deliberations, a juror asked a new question, the substance of which went well beyond the initial question. Without consulting counsel, the court instructed the jury in response to the additional inquiry. Although the court afforded counsel an opportunity to subsequently request an addition to the instruction and to object to the instruction as given, such belated consultation with counsel is insufficient to overcome the taint of the court’s communicating with the jury without affording a party a meaningful opportunity to have input on the court’s framing of the instruction. See Mills v. State, 620 So. 2d 1006 (Fla.1993); Mohammed v. State, 662 So. 2d 410, 411 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995); Mitchell v. State, 682 So. 2d 604 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996). As such error is per se reversible, we give no consideration to whether it may be harmless error. WARNER and STEVENSON, JJ., concur.
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Citator
Cited By
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McGLYNN v. State, 697 So. 2d 571 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997)…ing the jury a written copy of the jury instructions would have obviated this appeal. We encourage trial courts to seek input from attorneys prior to responding to a jury’s question as this judge has previously been instructed. See Jenkins v. State, 688 So. 2d 422 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997); Aljak v. State, 681 So. 2d 896 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996); see also Meyer v. Singletary, 610 So. 2d 1329 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992). WARNER and FARMER, JJ., concur. . Ivory v. State, 351 So. 2d 26 (Fla.1977).…
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Pearson v. State, 61 So. 3d 499 (Fla. 4th DCA 2011)…rule, the court recognized that “communication with the jury is ‘so fraught with potential prejudice that it cannot be considered harmless.’ ” Id. (quoting Ivory, 351 So. 2d at 28). We find this case to be significantly similar to Jenkins v. State, 688 So. 2d 422 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997). In Jenkins, the trial court was in the process of responding to a jury question raised during deliberations [when] a juror asked a new question, the substance of which went well beyond the initial question. Without consulting c…
Authorities Cited
- Mills v. State, 620 So. 2d 1006 (Fla. 1993)
- Jeelan Mohammed v. State, 662 So. 2d 410 (Fla. 4th DCA 1995)
- Mitchell v. State, 682 So. 2d 604 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996)