When the jury have agreed upon their verdict, they signify that they are ready to deliver it ; and on returning into court for that ptirpose, their names must be called over, and all twelve must be within hearing when it is given. The foreman of the jury is the person who is to deliver the verdict ; and in cases of treason or felony, it can only be received in open court and in the presence of the prisoner : in cases of misdemeanor it may be otherwise. The verdict may be either " Guilty " or "Not Guilty," or may be a special one ; and may be "Guilty" upon one count of an indictment, and "Not Guilty" upon others ; or may be " Guilty " as to part of a count, and " Not Guilty " as to the remainder, where an offence is charged which includes a lesser crime of the same and the latter only is proved ; as where murder is charged, and proof is of manslaughter; and persons indicted for the actual commission of felonies or misdemeanors may be convicted of the attempt (14 & 15 Viet. c. I00, s. 9.) A special verdict is the finding of all the facts specially, where the jury doubt whether they constitute the offence iu the indictment, and leaves the court to give judgment according to the legal effect of the facts so found.
Where upon the trial evidence is given of insanity at the time of committing the offence charged, and the jury acquit, they are required to find specially whether the accused was insane at the time of the commission of the offence, and whether he was acquitted on that account; and if they find in-the affirmative, the court is to order him to be detained till the queen's pleasure be known ; and she may give such order for his safe custody during her pleasure as she may think fit. (39k 40 Geo. I If. c. 94, B. 1 ; 3 & 4 Viet. 3. 54, s. 3.) On a verdict of acquittal, or where he is discharged by proclamation for want of prosecution, the prisoner is to be immediately set at large in open court, without the payment of any fines in respect of such discharge. (14 Geo. III. c. 20; 55 Geo. III. c. 50; 8 and 9 Vict. c. 114.) When a verdict of guilty has been returned against a prisoner, the court, except in the case of prosecutions pending in the Queen's Bench, may proceed at once to pass sentence upon him, unless he allege some matter or thing sufficient in law to arrest or bar judgment. In prose cutions pending in the Queen's Bench, however, the prisoner is allowed four days for • moving in arrest of judgment ; or, in cases of mis demeanor, for a new trial or writ of venire facial de novo. Also where the trial at any sittings or assizes is upon a record of the Queen's Bench, the judge before whom the verdict is taken may, under 11 Geo.
IV. & 1 Wm. IV. c. 70, s. 9 (except where the prosecution is by information filed by leave of the Queen's Bench, or such cases of information filed by the attorney-general wherein ho prays that judg ment may be postponed), pass sentence at once ; but such sentence is not to have the force and effect of a judgment of that court, until after the expiration of six days after the commeucement of the ensuiug term, during which period the prisoner may move for a new trial, or to have the judgment amended. Except in the last-mentioned case of
a trial at the sittings or assizes upon a record of the Queen's Bench, or where the offcuce of which the prisoner is convicted is a misdemeanor punishable by a simple or where the Queen's Bench, after con viction for misdemeanor, thinks proper to dispense with his attendance, sentence cannot be pronounced against is prisoucr unless he be present in court at the time.
Judgment may be arrested where the offender has received a pardou since his arraignment or after conviction becomes insane, or, having been out of custody since his conviction, denies that he is the person convicted (in which last case a jury is to be impanneled to try the fact), or for some defect apparent in any part of the record, as regards either the jurisdiction of the court, the statement of the offence or any of the proceedings thereou, but not for any of the mere technical defects specified in 7 Geo. IV. c. 64, as. 20 and 21. If the judgment be arrested, all the proceedings against him are to be set aside, and judgment of acquittal is to be pronounced in his favour; but he may be prosecuted again for the offence of which he is so acquitted.
A new trial may be had on the application of the defendant in all cases of misdemeanor peuding in the Queen's Bench, where it appears to the court that the awarding one is essential to justice ; as, for instance, where the verdict ts contrary to evidence or the directions of the judge, or evidence has been improperly received or rejected at the trial. The court of Queen's Bench will also in its discretion, where a party is acquitted of a misdemeanor on a prosecution pending in that court, allow a new trial, on the application of the prosecutor, if such acquittal has been obtained by any fraudulent means or practice, as where the party acquitted has kept back any of the prosecutor's witnesses, or neglected to give due notice of trial.
A writ of venire facies de novo, the effect of which is the same as granting a new trial, may be awarded where, by reason of misconduct on the part of the jury, or of some uncertainty or ambiguity or other imperfection in their verdict, or of any other irregularity or defect in the proceedings or trial, appearing on the record, the proper effect of the first venire has been frustrated, or the verdict has become void in law.