Contradictory jury statements

BOSTON — Based on post-trial comments from several jurors, a criminal defendant sought dismissal of her murder and vehicular manslaughter indictments after her first trial ended in a mistrial. But the Massachusetts Supreme Court decided that even if jury members contradict their notes to the judge, their comments after the trial cannot “render the declaration of a mistrial improper, or constitute an acquittal, where the jury did not announce or record a verdict in open court.”