Lawyer Failure to Object to Jury Redo Won’t Nix 75-Year Sentence

A man who was sentenced to 75 years in prison for child molestation wasn’t unconstitutionally deprived of effective assistance of counsel when his attorney allowed a hung jury to re-deliberate, a split panel for the Ninth Circuit said Friday.

Stephen May’s criminal trial lasted five days, and the jury was initially hung. The trial judge declared a mistrial and dismissed the jury, but the jury returned a few moments later and asked to return to deliberations. His attorney consented after a brief conversation with May. The jury deliberated for several more hours before returning a guilty verdict.

May argued that ...