Opinion ID: 1401004
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Dual Jury Procedure

Text: Mr. Wilson claims that the use of the dual juries during his trial with codefendant Darwin Brown violated his rights under the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment. He argues that the use of the dual jury procedure is structural error; in the alternative, he contends that the procedure prejudiced his defense and that the prejudice was not harmless. Before we determine whether a dual jury procedure is amenable to harmless error analysis, however, we must determine if there was any error at all. See Bland v. Sirmons, 459 F.3d 999, 1009-10 (10th Cir. 2006); Turrentine v. Mullin, 390 F.3d 1181, 1189 (10th Cir.2004). The OCCA found that there was no error in the use of the dual jury procedure, Wilson I, 983 P.2d at 456-58, and the district court agreed. Wilson III, 2006 WL 2289777, at -7. Because a great deal of the evidence pertained to both Mr. Wilson and Mr. Brown, the two were tried jointly with two separate juries assigned each to one defendant. Each was represented by separate counsel. Both juries sat in the jury box together and the state presented the evidence against both defendants simultaneously. When evidence admissible only against or in favor of one defendant was introduced, the court removed the other jury from the courtroom. See Tr. trans. 2/3/97, 3-6; Cohee v. State, 942 P.2d 211, 213 (Okla.Crim.App.1997); see also Beam v. Paskett, 3 F.3d 1301, 1302 (9th Cir.1993) (reversed on other grounds) (describing the dual jury procedure). In order to facilitate this, Mr. Wilson's counsel was required to inform the court whenever he was about to present a defense or evidence antagonistic to Brown so that the court could remove Brown's jury. The dual jury procedure is not without problems. Dual jury trials require counsel to guard against prejudicial evidence that might be entered against another defendant, drawing the lawyer's attention away from his own client. This increases the already difficult job of the capital defense lawyer. Additionally, constantly removing a jury from the room interrupts the flow of trial and can confuse the jury. Jury management difficulties increase two-fold. Scarborough v. State, 50 Md.App. 276, 437 A.2d 672, 674-75 (Spec.App.1981); see also United States v. Rimar, 558 F.2d 1271, 1273 (6th Cir.1977); State v. Corsi, 86 N.J. 172, 430 A.2d 210, 213 (1981) ([T]he multiple jury procedure . . . can involve substantial risks of prejudice to a defendant's right to a fair trial.). Our role as an appellate court, however, is not to determine what would have been the optimal procedure, but rather, to determine whether there has been a constitutional violation. Mr. Wilson's argument that the dual jury procedure is unconstitutional is precluded by this Court's recent decision in Brown v. Sirmons, 515 F.3d 1072, 1078-79 (10th Cir. 2008) (finding no error in the use of the dual jury procedure). Moreover, many of the potential harms from a dual jury procedure, including the inadvertent introduction of prejudicial evidence against one defendant, are also present and possibly magnified in a trial where the defendants are tried jointly. In joint trials without dual juries, defense counsel and defendants often wind up at the same counsel table. Lambright v. Stewart, 191 F.3d 1181, 1185 (9th Cir.1999) (en banc). Though the jury is instructed that at times they may have to consider evidence against one defendant but not against the other, there might be some rub off. Id. Yet the Supreme Court has expressed a preference for joinder. Zafiro v. United States, 506 U.S. 534, 539, 113 S.Ct. 933, 122 L.Ed.2d 317 (1993). The use of a dual jury system may very well be a reasonable response to prejudicial joinder, as it recognizes the court's interest in efficiency while mitigating the prejudice inherent in joint trials by diminishing the amount of inadmissible evidence a jury hears. See Lambright, 191 F.3d at 1186; Smith v. DeRobertis, 758 F.2d 1151, 1152 (7th Cir. 1985) ([T]he double-jury procedure may reduce the prejudice from being tried jointly with anothera form of prejudice usually held outweighed by the economies of joint trials.). Given the Supreme Court's continuing approval of joinder, we can scarcely conclude that the generally less problematic alternative of dual juries is categorically forbidden. Indeed, every federal appellate court that has considered a dual jury system has upheld the procedure. See Lambright, 191 F.3d at 1186 (finding no violation of due process or any other trial right in the use of dual juries in a capital case); Smith, 758 F.2d at 1152 (same); United States v. Lewis, 716 F.2d 16, 19 (D.C.Cir.1983) (We accept the dual jury procedure so long as it comports with the ethos of due process commanded by our stringent rules of criminal justice.); United States v. Hayes, 676 F.2d 1359, 1366 (11th Cir. 1982) (rejecting a challenge to the use of multiple juries and noting that neither [defendant] has alleged any more than a generalized possibility of harm). Mr. Wilson cites several reasons why the dual jury procedure violated his constitutional rights. First, he contends that the dual jury procedure created a conflict of interest by requiring counsel to notify the judge in advance of potential prejudicial testimony. He cites no specific incidents where a conflict occurred. Mack v. Peters, 80 F.3d 230, 235 (7th Cir.1996) (For [a dual jury] trial to be unconstitutional, a defendant tried in such a trial must show some specific, undue prejudice.). Mr. Wilson's counsel's sole duty to the court was to inform it of questions against Brown that were potentially prejudicial. And though this was an important duty, in the end, if he failed to fulfill it, Brown's counsel could object to any prejudicial information introduced against his client. See Brown, 515 F.3d at 1079. While Mr. Wilson's counsel had to inform the court in advance of potential prejudicial questions, his additional duty to the court did not diminish his presence at counsel table during all stages of the trial, nor did it prevent him from acting as counsel, as he was free to ask all questions and present all evidence. Whatever minimal obligation he had did not materially limit his ability zealously to represent Mr. Wilson. The defendant invokes Holloway v. Arkansas, 435 U.S. 475, 98 S.Ct. 1173, 55 L.Ed.2d 426 (1978), but that was a far different case. In Holloway, a single attorney represented three co-defendants despite having confidential information from one adverse to the others, which limited his representation; the Court naturally presumed prejudice from that egregious situation. Nothing in the dual jury procedure rises to that level. Second and more specifically, Mr. Wilson argues that defense counsel was loathe to remove the jury and cause a spectacle, and therefore refrained from cross-examining some of the government's witnesses. We note that Mr. Wilson has not identified any specific information that might have been, but was not, elicited from a proper cross-examination of any witnesses. Additionally, we are slightly puzzled by why counsel would elect not to cross-examine important witnesses, given that the trial court gave careful and meticulous . . . instructions, Brown, 515 F.3d at 1078, informing the juries that they would at times leave the courtroom, and that they could not attempt to draw any inference, or come to any conclusions, or guess at what evidence may be presented or is being presented at the time when they were outside of the courtroom. Wilson I, 983 P.2d at 457. We are aware that cautionary instructions cannot entirely eliminate juror suspicion, but we cannot imagine why a reasonable counsel would have refrained from cross-examining key witnesses under those circumstances. Mr. Wilson also claims that the dual jury system resulted in improperly admitted evidence about Yost's death on the theory that because he was not in the back room while the beating occurred, details of the event were not relevant to his case. This argument borders on the absurd. The government tried Mr. Wilson for felony murder and for first degree malice murder; the government's theory was that Mr. Wilson helped plan Yost's murder two weeks prior to the robbery and that the murder occurred in furtherance of the robbery of which Mr. Wilson was an integral part. Details of the victim's death were relevant. Because we find no error, we do not reach Mr. Wilson's claim that the dual jury procedure is structural error, though we note that this Court recently rejected this argument when made by Mr. Wilson's co-defendant. Brown, 515 F.3d at 1078-79. We would be bound to reach the same conclusion here. [5]