Calling it a practice “fraught with danger,” the Ohio First District Court of Appeals has overturned a 2000 burglary conviction because a Hamilton County Common Pleas Court judge allowed the jury to ask questions during trial.

        In an opinion written by Presiding Judge Rupert A. Doan, the appeals court ordered a new trial for Antwaun Gilden, 25, of North College Hill, who in March 2000 was ordered to serve six months in prison for burglary.

        The ruling criticized his conviction because Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Ann Marie Tracey had allowed jurors to ask witnesses questions during Mr. Gilden's trial.

        In the June 15 decision, appellate judges question the impartiality of a jury that “assumes the position of an advocate.”

        “The jury's neutrality is crucial to reaching the truth in an adversary trial,” Judge Doan wrote.

        The court's nine-page decision discusses at length the dilemma trial court judges face when a jury has questions.

        Many times, jurors are allowed to pose written questions during their deliberations in order to clarify a point or to refresh their recollections of testimony.

        But during a trial, jurors are still hearing each side of the case. Asking questions at that point could endanger the jury's “open-mindedness,” the judge wrote.

        “To allow the fact-finder to join in this exploration encourages it to prematurely adopt the interpretation of one side or the other,” the ruling stated. “The fact-finder must remain neutral until the time comes for it to make its findings.”

        The Ohio Supreme Court has not adopted a position on whether or not a jury should be allowed to ask questions. And appeals courts that have addressed the issue have taken somewhat contradictory stances.

        The First District Court of Appeals' position, however, is clear. It suggests lower courts “ban jury questioning altogether.”

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