People v. Lee Yune Chong

The appellant was accused of the crime of murder, and the jury returned the following verdict: “We, the jury, find the defendant guilty, and fix the penalty at imprisonment for life.” This verdict was declared and duly recorded, and the jurors were discharged for the term, and left the court-room. Most of them went downstairs to the clerk’s office to get warrants for their pay as jurors. Three or four of them went, by mistake, to the sheriff’s office, on a still lower floor, where there was a conversation with a third party, who spoke approvingly of the verdict. In the clerk’s office there was a controversy with the clerk about one day’s pay, which occupied considerable time. A number of spectators mingled with the jurors as they went away from the court-room, and the jurors considered themselves finally discharged and free to talk about the case. Several of them did have conversations with different persons, who approved the verdict, and among others, ■with one of the attorneys for the prosecution.

After the jury has thus been discharged, the presiding judge, after having disposed of some other business, left the bench and went towards, or into, his chambers. He then returned,…