Case Title: Fox v. State

Citation: 457 N.E.2d 1088

Docket Number: 184S15

State: indiana

Court: Indiana Supreme Court

Date: 1984-01-12T00:00:00Z

Document:
457 N.E.2d 1088 (1984)
Verdell Denise FOX, Appellant (Defendant below),
v.
STATE of Indiana, Appellee (Plaintiff below).
No. 184S15.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
January 12, 1984.
*1089 Rick L. Jancha, South Bend, for appellant.
Linley E. Pearson, Atty. Gen., Palmer K. Ward, Deputy Atty. Gen., Indianapolis, for appellee.
PRENTICE, Justice.
This cause is before us upon the petition of the Defendant (Appellant) to transfer the cause from the Court of Appeals, Third District, that court having determined that the trial court erred in failing to reassemble the jury, following its discharge and to conduct a Lindsey hearing (Lindsey v. State, (1973) 260 Ind. 351, 295 N.E.2d 819) in response to a motion to correct errors and a supporting affidavit which, if accepted as true, disclosed only a possibility that the jury had been improperly exposed to deleterious materials during its deliberations. It was, and continues to be, the position of the defendant that the Court of Appeals should have ordered a new trial.
The opinion of the Court of Appeals erroneously decides a new question of law, i.e. that Lindsey is applicable to post-verdict disclosures and inferentially contravenes ruling precedents of this Court holding jurors may not impeach their verdicts. Accordingly, the decision and opinion of the Court of Appeals are now ordered vacated, and the petition to transfer is granted, but *1090 the judgment of the trial court is, nevertheless, affirmed.
The appeal presents four issues, including the aforementioned one upon which we disagree with the Court of Appeals' determination. In all other respects, however, we adopt that court's opinion, as authored by Judge Garrard, as hereinafter quoted:
Upon the third issue, the Court of Appeals remanded the cause with instructions to reassemble the jury for a voir dire examination with guidelines prescribed in Lindsey v. State, (1973) 260 Ind. 351, 295 N.E.2d 819, if practical to do so, and alternatively to grant a new trial.
Lindsey has been misapplied. The Lindsey problem arose during trial, while the judge was in command and under the responsibility of seeing that it was conducted as fairly as possible. The case before us presents a post verdict problem. In Lindsey, it was reasonable to require the judge to act upon a showing of a substantial possibility that the jury had been improperly exposed to extraneous material having a clear potential to taint its verdict. It is not reasonable, however, and would be counter-productive to require the judge, after a verdict has been returned, to run willy-nilly in search of evidence of a prejudicial impropriety upon the mere claim of a possible impropriety which, if it did in fact, occur, possibly harmed the claimant. The Lindsey procedures are not appropriate and are not available for attacking a verdict. Hardiman v. State, (1978) 176 Ind. App. 557, 563, 377 N.E.2d 1384, 1388.
An Inquiry of the type required by Lindsey would, in its second stage, permit jurors to testify as to the influence the extraneous material had had upon their deliberations and, therefore, to impeach their own verdict, which has never been permitted in this State. Wilson v. State, (1970) 253 Ind. 585, 255 N.E.2d 817; Davis v. State, (1967) 249 Ind. 426, 231 N.E.2d 230; see also Hardiman v. State, (1978) 176 Ind. 557, 377 N.E.2d 1384. Accord McDonald v. Pless, (1915) 238 U.S. 264, 35 S. Ct. 783, 59 L. Ed. 1300; Mattox v. United States, (1892) 146 U.S. 140, 13 S. Ct. 50, 36 L. Ed. 917. Permitting a Lindsey inquiry after the verdict has been rendered would be contrary to our well established precedent and would "create an intolerable situation and no jury verdict would ever be lasting or conclusive." Wilson v. State, 253 Ind. at 591, 255 N.E.2d  at 821.
Our Court has not, to our knowledge, been confronted, heretofore, with a case in which the possibility that the jury may have been exposed to prejudicial extrinsic material was discovered after the verdict had been returned and the jury discharged, although the issue has been considered by several federal circuit courts. While these courts differ upon the standard to apply in determining whether or not to set a verdict aside following such improper exposure, they appear to agree  and it is obvious  that a threshold question is whether or not there had been such exposure. (See Vasquez v. United States, (9th Cir.1979) 597 F.2d 192 and cases there cited for summary of standards.)
In the case at bar, the magazine was brought to the trial court's attention through Defendant's motion to correct errors, to which the bailiff's affidavit was attached, pursuant to Ind.Rules of Procedure, T.R. 59(A)(1) and T.R. 59(H). The pertinent parts of the motion and affidavits were as follows:
A hearing was had on the motion to correct errors, but no evidence was tendered.
Without a prima facie showing of exposure, we see no basis for the trial judge to consider the likelihood of prejudicial impact or the ultimate question of the remedial action required. Here, not only was there no such showing, the motion and affidavits did not even allege it. The most that can be said for them is that they alleged that the jury might have been exposed to the magazine cover and the companion editorial. There was no averment and no evidence that any juror had, in fact, seen or discussed the material or even that it had been in the jury room during the deliberations. The affidavits stated only that the magazine was found in the jury room on the morning following the return of the verdict. We recognize a substantial possibility that the magazine was, in fact, in the jury room during deliberations; however, to say that it was and to say further that one or more jurors examined it requires a degree of speculation that is unnecessary and, therefore, inappropriate.
Although a juror may not impeach his verdict, he may give testimony as to what transpired during the trial, including the deliberations. Mattox v. United States, (1892) 146 U.S. 140, 13 S. Ct. 50, 36 L. Ed. 917; Llewellyn v. Stynchcombe, (5th Cir.1980) 609 F.2d 194; United States v. Vasquez, (9th Cir.1979) 597 F.2d 192. If Defendant, therefore, had a bona fide claim of jury taint, it behooved her first to allege that exposure did occur, as a matter of fact, and to support the claim with evidence, by affidavit and/or testimony, in the discretion of the trial judge. If, and only if, a claimant establishes, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the jury saw or heard the material complained of, should the judge be put to the task of determining the *1094 likelihood of the verdict having, thereby been polluted. The ruling upon the motion to correct errors was, therefore, correct upon this issue.
We also recognize that in ruling upon this issue, the trial judge's comments may imply that he assumed that the jury had at least seen the cover of the magazine, inasmuch as he stated that he was not convinced that such had influenced the verdict, because the verdict was one of guilty as to an unarmed offense rather than as to the armed offense charged. However, his remarks need not necessarily be so interpreted. In any event, his ruling was correct, even though it may have been for the wrong reason.
We find no error. The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
GIVAN, C.J., and DeBRULER and PIVARNIK, JJ., concur.
HUNTER, J., dissenting with opinion.
HUNTER, Justice, dissenting.
I must respectfully dissent from the majority opinion. I do agree that it is not appropriate to hold a Lindsey inquiry after a verdict has been given. However, I do not agree with the standard set out by the majority that the defendant must establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the jury actually saw or heard the extraneous material before this Court can assume the verdict might have been tainted. The constitutional guarantee to a fair trial demands a reversal in any case where the accused has proved that there is a substantial likelihood the jury was improperly exposed to prejudicial, extrinsic material during their deliberations. The Seventh Circuit has expressed this standard in the following manner. "And it is sufficient to require a reversal if, in our judgment, the error might have operated to the substantial injury of the defendant." United States v. Grady, (7th Cir.1950) 185 F.2d 273, 275. (emphasis added).
In this case, there is more than a substantial liklihood that the magazine was in the jury room during at least part of the jury deliberations since the bailiff's affidavit established that he found it in the jury room at approximately 8:30 a.m., when the jury had only been discharged eight hours earlier at 12:30 a.m. that same morning. It was unequivocally established that the magazine was highly prejudicial, extrinsic material. While it is true that the magazine might not have been seen by any member of the jury, it could have been used effectively to persuade jurors otherwise opposed to conviction to agree to a guilty verdict. This is especially true in a case such as this where the evidence was conflicting, the credibility of the prosecuting witnesses was not good, and the jury reported being deadlocked two times. In circumstances such as these, where the extrinsic evidence is patently prejudicial a new trial is required. Expressio eorum quae tacite insunt nihil operatur.
The judgment of the trial court should be reversed and defendant should be granted a new trial.