Opinion ID: 4208659
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Limitations on Defense Counsel's Involvement

Text: Zimny also claims that the district court's refusal to let the attorneys question the jurors directly was unwarranted. But [c]ounsel has no right to pose specific questions to a juror or to pursue every desired avenue of inquiry. The control and direction of a court's investigation into juror misconduct is within the discretion of the district court, not defense counsel. United States v. Ortiz-Arrigoitia, 996 F.2d 436, 443 (1st Cir. 1993). 13 Zimny also lodges similar complaints about the court's failure to ask similar follow-up questions to Juror No. 10, who, like Juror No. 1, spoke with Juror No. 8 during trial and worked for an employer who had an office in Singapore. But Juror No. 10 testified that he had never heard of the blog before his testimony and that he had no idea who authored the additional-juror comment, and the court found him to be credible. - 18 - Along similar lines, Zimny complains that counsel's opportunities to suggest questions were unfairly limited and that the court unjustifiably refused to pursue some of Zimny's suggested lines of inquiry. Here's what happened: After the court concluded its initial questioning of each juror (and, don't forget, the attorneys had helped formulate the script of questions), the court permitted defense counsel to submit proposed follow-up questions; defense counsel did so for each and every juror. And the court frequently incorporated Zimny's suggestions into its inquiry. On multiple occasions when the court did not do so, the court made clear that, in its view, its questions already adequately covered the subjects with which Zimny was concerned, that Zimny's proposals were overbroad or irrelevant, or that Zimny had been given ample opportunity to suggest general questions in the script-drafting process. Based on our review of the record, we conclude that the district court's questions adequately covered the relevant remand inquiry. Therefore, we see no abuse of discretion in either the district court's assessment of the presented questions or in the court's refusal to incorporate Zimny's pined-for questions into its juror probe.