A criminal trial in Mobile ended without a verdict this week after jurors spent two contentious days locked in a deliberation room, eventually telling the court they could not reach a unanimous decision. Circuit Judge Rick Stout declared a mistrial late Thursday after the panel deadlocked 11-to-1, and the case against defendant Calvin Chambers is now headed for a second trial, set to begin later this month.
Chambers stood accused of burglary and rape stemming from an assault on an elderly woman, 85, near Little Flower Church in midtown Mobile in October 2012. Testimony wrapped up earlier in the week, and jurors began deliberating soon after. According to one juror who spoke afterward on condition of anonymity, the panel was split 10-2 in favor of conviction as of Wednesday. By the time deliberations resumed and stretched through nearly ten hours on Thursday, several jurors had shifted their positions, though one holdout never wavered from a vote to acquit.
The scene inside and outside the courtroom grew emotional as the deadlock dragged on. Arguments among jurors reportedly grew loud enough to be heard from the back of the courtroom, prompting Judge Stout to step to the deliberation room door at one point and admonish the group for how sharply they were speaking to one another. At least one juror left the room mid-session and told those nearby she did not intend to go back in.
When the mistrial was finally announced, family members of the victim were seen crying in the courthouse hallway. Stout, who described the deliberations as among the most contentious he had witnessed from the bench, took the unusual step of pulling four jurors aside individually to discuss what had caused the impasse. Assistant District Attorney Jill Phillips, along with a colleague who had not been part of the prosecution team, also spoke with several jurors informally in the hallway after the case ended. In the lobby of Government Plaza, the victim’s daughter and son-in-law spent several minutes talking with, and receiving hugs from, at least four members of the panel.
One juror later told a reporter that the eventual decision to report a hung jury came down to simple exhaustion. Some jurors, he said, remained focused on reaching the legally correct outcome even as the hours wore on, while others appeared to want the process to end. Whatever the internal dynamics, the result leaves the case unresolved for now: prosecutors will have to present it to a new jury, with the retrial scheduled to begin later in September.
Cases like this one underscore how difficult it can be for a Mobile County jury to reach consensus in matters involving conflicting testimony and no independent witnesses. The upcoming retrial will give both sides a chance to make their case again, this time in front of twelve jurors who have not yet weighed in on the outcome.