A hung jury can serve a defendant as effectively as an outright win.

Evidence

Facher did not want to change the composition of the jury at this point. To him, a hung jury was as good as a win, and any change might upset this delicate balance. Furthermore, Facher most certainly did not want Dina Gilbern, a retired social worker with two grown children, to deliberate. During the voir dire, Gilbern had said she was a member of the Audubon Society and a supporter of the Sierra Club. “I think we ought to wait until the end of tomorrow,” Facher told the judge. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 2376

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: the trial lawyer’s cold arithmetic of jury deadlock — why ‘no verdict’ is a quiet victory, and how counsel engineers it by stalling on substitutions.
• XREF: Connects to the game-theoretic treatment of one-shot vs. repeated strategic play and settlement incentives in the reader’s law-and-economics material.