Hung jury puts spotlight on mistrials

SANDUSKY — When jurors could not reach a verdict in local podcaster Ashli Ford's felony mortgage fraud case, the trial ended — but the criminal case against her did not. Ford, 41, of Milan, faces 13 felony charges in Erie County Common Pleas Court where Judge Beverly McGookey is presiding. She is awaiting a retrial on charges including tampering with records, forgery, aggravated theft and identity fraud. That was originally scheduled for Monday but is on hold for now amid several pending motions. When she was first put on trial on those charges in May, the 12-person jury could not reach a unanimous verdict of either "guilty" or "not guilty," resulting in a hung jury and a mistrial. Criminal trials locally are somewhat of a rarity — between 2014 and 2018, there was an average of only seven per year in Erie County Common Pleas Court. Mistrials are more uncommon still. A legal expert explained how mistrials happen, and why. 'A last resort' Michael J. Benza, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University, said that a mistrial is an order that ends an existing case without a verdict. A mistrial is different from an acquittal, which means a defendant has been found not guilty. A mistrial could, but not always, result in a dismissal of the case. A dismissal is an order that ends a case, usually for a procedural reason — like an agreement between the parties, the plaintiff's or prosecutor's reques or a ruling granting a motion to dismiss on legal grounds. Hung juries are among the most common reasons for mistrials, Benza said. Mistrials can also result from problems involving evidence or juror misconduct serious enough to affect the fairness of the entire trial. In these instances, a mistrial is declared "when something happens that prevents a valid verdict," Benza said. "Some error or circumstance happens that means no verdict can be reached or something happens that taints the process beyond repair." Judges generally consider other options before taking that step. "A mistrial is not something that is done lightly but only as a last resort," Benza said. Ford's case showed that. Before declaring a mistrial, McGookey gave jurors what's known as a Howard charge — an instruction used when jurors say they're having difficulty reaching a verdict. It asks them to continue deliberating and try to reach one. Jurors continued deliberating afterward but remained deadlocked. That lack of a verdict explains why defendants can be tried again without violating the Fifth Amendment's protection against double jeopardy. Double jeopardy generally prevents the government from prosecuting someone again for the same offense after an acquittal or conviction. A hung jury, however, leaves the case unresolved with no determination made on the defendant's innocence or guilt. Because no verdict was reached, the law generally allows prosecutors to try the case again before another jury. The same principle can apply if another jury deadlocks, according to an article in the Northwestern University Law Review, there is no fixed constitutional limit on the number of retrials following hung juries. "A mistrial will not impact double jeopardy unless the judge makes specific findings, usually about prosecutorial misconduct. Then the mistrial is with prejudice, which bars another prosecution," Benza said. "But since the case is ended without a verdict, it is not double jeopardy." Exceptions include certain circumstances involving prosecutorial misconduct or a mistrial improperly declared over a defendant's objection. Why jurors must agree In serious criminal cases, jurors must unanimously agree to convict a defendant. Benza added that some states allow nonunanimous verdicts in "petty" cases — misdemeanors punishable by a maximum of less than six months in jail. "In criminal cases, it is something we have always required in most circumstances," Benza said. "It has been part of our criminal justice system from the beginning." The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed in its 2020 Ramos v. Louisiana decision that the Sixth Amendment requires unanimous verdicts to convict defendants of serious crimes in both state and federal courts. Before this ruling, 48 states and federal courts required all 12 jurors to agree on a conviction, while Louisiana and Oregon permitted convictions by votes of 10–2 or 11–1. Ford case update Ford's retrial, originally scheduled for Monday, was postponed after her defense attorney, Peter Pattakos, filed a motion to dismiss the case on double jeopardy grounds, claiming that his prior court filings showed that there was "substantial evidence of jury tampering by the Erie County Prosecutor's Office in the May 2026 jury trial." Pattakos added that this warrants Ford being afforded the right to have the charges dismissed altogether. Following Pattakos' motion, Erie County prosecutor Kevin Baxter responded that Ford has raised these arguments multiple times and that the claims have "no merit." Baxter also asked the court to proceed with only the perjury charge for now, asking the next jury to rule on it separately rather than consider all the charges together. The charge was added after Ford's last trial after prosecutors claimed she allegedly made a false statement while testifying that Eugene Sanders, the former superintendent of Sandusky Schools, was at the board of education on the day in question and saw the victim and Ford inside the building. Baxter said a subsequent investigation showed Ford's testimony about Sanders' presence was false. The longtime administrator had retired as superintendent in July 2022 and was in West Palm Beach, Florida, on the date in question, he claimed.