Opinion ID: 202690
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Remmer Presumption of Prejudice

Text: 36 On appeal, Tejeda also argues for the first time 2 that he is entitled to a presumption of prejudice under Remmer v. United States, 347 U.S. 227, 74 S.Ct. 450, 98 L.Ed. 654 (1954). We hold that the Remmer presumption does not apply here. 37 In Remmer, the defendant learned after his conviction that a third party had attempted to bribe a juror to get a verdict favorable to the defendant, and he moved for a new trial. Id. at 228, 74 S.Ct. 450. The court had not informed defense counsel of the bribe, but had initiated an investigation of the bribe and had held an ex parte meeting with the prosecution. Id. The defendant's motion for new trial was denied. Id. at 229, 74 S.Ct. 450. The Supreme Court held that Remmer was not entitled to an automatic reversal, but rather to a hearing before the trial court, and that the jury tampering would be presumed to be prejudicial. Id. at 229-30, 74 S.Ct. 450. 38 There is an ongoing debate in the circuits about the limits on and the ongoing vitality of the presumption of prejudice rule announced in Remmer. Compare United States v. Pennell, 737 F.2d 521, 532-33 (6th Cir.1984) (presumption of prejudice no longer exists), with United States v. Sylvester, 143 F.3d 923, 934 (5th Cir. 1998) (proper inquiry is whether likelihood of prejudice is high enough to assign to the government the burden of proving harmlessness), United States v. Williams-Davis, 90 F.3d 490, 497 (D.C.Cir.1996) (same), United States v. Lloyd, 269 F.3d 228, 238 (3d Cir.2001) (presumption applies when the extraneous information is of a considerably serious nature, such as when a juror is directly contacted by third-parties), United States v. Dutkel, 192 F.3d 893, 897 (9th Cir.1999) ([A] presumption of prejudice arises if a juror was subjected to coercion or bribery, and if this intrusion may have affected the juror in the exercise of his judgment.), United States v. Scull, 321 F.3d 1270, 1280 (10th Cir.2003) (prejudice presumed [w]hen members of a jury are exposed to extraneous information about a matter pending before [them]), and United States v. Greer, 285 F.3d 158, 173 (2d Cir.2000) (similar). As we discussed in United States v. Bradshaw, 281 F.3d 278, 287 (1st Cir.2002), two later Supreme Court cases, United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 737-39, 113 S.Ct. 1770, 123 L.Ed.2d 508 (1993), and Smith v. Phillips, 455 U.S. 209, 215-17, 102 S.Ct. 940, 71 L.Ed.2d 78 (1982), narrowed the broad language in Remmer. 39 This court has already rejected defendant's argument that the Remmer presumption applies to all claims of juror bias resulting from extraneous contacts. See, e.g., Bradshaw, 281 F.3d at 288-89; United States v. Gomes, 177 F.3d 76, 82-83 (1st Cir.1999); United States v. Boylan, 898 F.2d 230, 260-62 (1st Cir.1990). 40 We employed the presumption of prejudice in United States v. Gaston-Brito, 64 F.3d 11 (1st Cir.1995), where a trial court summarily denied, without conducting any inquiry, a motion for mistrial made before the verdict. Id. at 13. We did so in the context of holding that a trial court is obligated to conduct a sufficient inquiry to determine whether the communication was harmless. Id. (quoting United States v. O'Brien, 972 F.2d 12, 14 (1st Cir.1992)) (internal quotation marks omitted). Tejeda relies on Gaston-Brito to argue that given the jurors' expressions of fear and concern . . ., it [was] error to find that . . . Tejeda was not prejudiced by the throat-slitting gesture. 41 Gaston-Brito is inapposite. In Gaston-Brito, a cooperating witness was asked to identify the person who had threatened to kill his daughter if his wife did not turn over drug proceeds. A case agent seated at the prosecution table pointed to the defense table, possibly indicating to the jury that the defendants had made the threat, although no evidence established that. Id. at 12. The gesture at issue here is of a completely different nature. 42 There are other distinctions. As Gaston-Brito noted, the government created the problem there when a case agent for the prosecution made an inappropriate gesture conveying substantive evidence. Id. at 13. Since the jury could well think that the agent had inside information, there was a risk the jurors would consider the information during deliberations. Id. The court in Gaston-Brito said it was applying a heightened standard when the prosecution was responsible for improper ex parte conduct. 3 Id. Here, the gesture did not come from the prosecution and was not an effort to put evidence in front of the jury. We add that there are different considerations at play when a defendant attempts to vacate a conviction, in the face of overwhelming evidence of guilt, on the basis that someone associated with the defense made an improper gesture to the jury. For example, we would not want to create an incentive for such gesturing by individuals associated with defendants.