Part of why the justice system has such an image problem

Got a deadlocked jury in Suffolk County, Massachusetts?  No problem.  The DA's office there will just begin investigating the lone holdout juror, right in the middle of deliberations, until they come up with a reason to bounce her, thereby ensuring the suspect's conviction:

"Suffolk Superior Court Judge Margaret Hinkle removed Lurlyn Seigler, 50, from the jury for omitting information about her ex-husband’s criminal record on her juror questionnaire.

The ouster came after [Calvin] Carnes’ jury on multiple occasions declared itself “deadlocked” and “frustrated.”

Prosecutors began running the names of all the jurors through Boston police databases after a victim-witness advocate recognized Seigler while the jury was deliberating."

Mr. Carnes's attorney is now asking the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for a new trial for his client.

"The justices questioned whether it was proper for prosecutors to do background checks on all the jurors without first informing Hinkle about their concerns about Seigler. Jurors were screened before they were impaneled" 

"We don't need from the judge the judge.  We'll just take care of this little matter ourselves, especially since this juror is the reason things aren't going our way in this trial."

It's unknown to us if the murder suspect in this case was actually guilty or not of the accusations against him.  It really doesn't matter.  The proper step here (particularly given the circumstances listed) would have been to declare a mistrial and start over, frustrating as that might be, instead of allowing this travesty of an outcome to come about.

Judge Hinkle should be ashamed of herself for allowing the DA to pull such a ridiculous stunt right under her nose.