Nevada high court considers less-than-unanimous verdicts

Lawyer Christopher Oram told a three-judge Supreme Court panel in Las Vegas on Monday that Nevada law requires unanimous verdicts in criminal cases.

"This is one constitutional right that can never be waived," he said.

Deputy Clark County District Attorney Gary Booker, who represented the state, said Nevada law allows a verdict from fewer than 12 jurors when both sides agree to it.

Oram represents Demarlo Berry, who was found guilty in a 1995 split-decision of first-degree murder, burglary and robbery with a deadly weapon.

The case stemmed from the April 24, 1994, shooting death of Las Vegas Carl's Jr. restaurant manager Charles Burke.

Then-Clark County District Judge Bill Maupin accepted the 11-1 verdict after Booker, the case prosecutor, and Berry's defense attorneys agreed to the move. Maupin later sentenced Berry, then 20, to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

"Nobody wanted a hung jury," Booker said at the time. "We wanted a resolution."

To get Berry to accept the split verdict, Booker agreed not to seek the death penalty.

A hung jury would have resulted in a mistrial and forced Booker to retry the case or drop the charges. He also would have retained the option of pursuing a death sentence.

Maupin, now Nevada's chief justice, did not sit on the appeal panel. Justices Cliff Young and two of Maupin's former colleagues on the District Court bench, justices Myron Leavitt and Nancy Becker, heard Monday's arguments.

Booker argued that Berry's lawyers, Patricia Erickson and Laura Melia, made a good but risky decision in accepting the split verdict.

Oram claimed that in accepting the unusual verdict, Berry's lawyers provided ineffective assistance, another basis for appeal.

Erickson said Monday that she and Melia put on a strong defense and believed they won the case.

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