Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Murder Trial

A defendant cannot plead guilty to a lesser offense unless the prosecutor agrees to reduce the charges and the judge approves the deal. Your hypothetical defendant was charged with first degree murder and can only plead guilty to that charge if the prosecutor doesn't want to make a deal.

I doubt that any court would allow a defendant who already has had a trial but pled guilty before the verdict to just change his mind and get a new trial. If the plea was accepted improperly the court might have to allow it, but such errors don't happen very often.

Only a handful of arguments are generally available to a defendant who pleads guilty. Unless the trial cout issues a certificate of probable cause which agrees that the issue is potentially meritorious, the defendant in your case would not be able to argue that the judge improperly pressured the jury.

If the lawyer had already filed a notice of appeal the defendant would not be able to withdraw his guilty plea because the trial court would have lost jurisdiction over the case. And as I said earlier, it is unlikely a court would let him do this even if it could.

Finally, even if the defendant could argue on appeal that the judge had acted improperly, he would almost surely lose. The judge didn't tell the jury to convict him; she just ordered them to reach a verdict. That is what judges are supposed to do when a jury says it is deadlocked, unless it appears that the jurors' disagreements cannot be overcome. Most judges won't even consider that possibility until the jury comes back a second time and reports that it still can't reach a unanimous verdict.