Opinion ID: 792092
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Johnson's claim of juror bias

Text: 22 Based on the record that existed at the time, the Michigan trial court and the Michigan Court of Appeals found that Juror 457 gave honest answers at voir dire and did not conceal or misrepresent any information sought during that portion of the trial. Johnson, 631 N.W.2d at 7. The Michigan Court of Appeals acknowledged Juror 457's voir dire responses that she ha[d] been assaulted and that someone had hit her on the head with a gun when she was a teenager. Id. Johnson's revelation in his motion for a new trial that Juror 457 was the complaining witness in a currently pending domestic violence prosecution, id. at 6, did not cause the state courts to change their findings. 23 During habeas review before the district court, Johnson succeeded in introducing new evidence via a motion to expand the record. This evidence consisted of records of charges, proceedings, and convictions for five separate domestic violence incidents involving Juror 457 as the complaining witness, including the pending prosecution of which Johnson and the Michigan Court of Appeals were already aware (because Johnson had raised the matter in his state-court motion for a new trial). 24 The additional evidence does not refute the fact that, when asked about her previous experience as a crime victim, Juror 457 truthfully answered that she had been assaulted. This response does not imply that there was only one assault, nor is it misleading as to the particular nature of the assaults (the assaults on Juror 457 were domestic in nature). The response also implies no time frame for the assaults, so the fact that one of the incidents was currently being prosecuted does not contradict the truthfulness of Juror 457's answer. 25 Further, there is no evidence that Juror 457 deliberately lied or concealed information when she responded to defense counsel's question about being threatened with a weapon when she said that she had been hit in the head with a gun as a teenager but could disregard the experience. The record reflects, however, that Juror 457 was the victim of a felonious assault in November of 1997, only five months prior to voir dire. This incident resulted in the assailant being accused of assaulting Juror 457 with a hand gun without intent to murder or to inflict great bodily harm. Id. Nothing in the record indicates that Juror 457 was hit in the head with a hand gun at that time (contrary to Johnson's assertion in his pleadings). 26 These facts do not establish that Juror 457 lied or concealed information in response to defense counsel's question. Johnson failed to show that Juror 457 was not in fact hit in the head with a gun when she was a teenager. And as to the much more recent assault with a hand gun, Johnson presented no proof to show that Juror 457 deliberately concealed the incident as opposed to simply having overlooked it. Particularly telling is that Johnson presented no affidavit from Juror 457 that explains her voir dire responses. 27 Likewise, the record does not show that Juror 457 lied or concealed information when she failed to respond to the more general questions put to the panel of potential jurors by the trial court, the prosecutor, and the defense counsel. The particular questions cited by Johnson are so indefinite and call for such subjective responses that Juror 457's silence cannot fairly be said to be false or misleading. Although Johnson argues that these questions were obviously designed to evoke a response from a person with her background, he fails to set forth clear and convincing evidence that Juror 457's lack of response amounted to concealment. 28 In sum, Johnson has been unable to rebut the presumption that the findings of the Michigan courts were correct. The findings are supported by the evidence and must be given deference under AEDPA. See McAdoo, 365 F.3d at 493-94. 29
30 In addition to evaluating the findings of fact made by the Michigan courts, Johnson's habeas petition requires an analysis of the consistency of the Michigan court decisions with existing federal law. The standard governing whether a defendant is entitled to a new trial based on juror responses to voir dire questions is set forth in McDonough Power Equipment, Inc. v. Greenwood, 464 U.S. 548, 104 S.Ct. 845, 78 L.Ed.2d 663 (1984). McDonough held that in order to obtain a new trial on the basis of a juror's inaccurate response, a party must first demonstrate that a juror failed to answer honestly a material question on voir dire, and then further show that a correct response would have provided a valid basis for a challenge for cause. McDonough, 464 U.S. at 556, 104 S.Ct. 845. 31 With regard to McDonough 's first prong, the Michigan courts determined that Juror 457 honestly answered all questions posed during voir dire. Johnson has not demonstrated that Juror 457 deliberately lied or concealed information, and thus has not shown that the state-court decision was contrary to or involved an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law as determined by the Supreme Court. 32 Regarding McDonough 's second prong, a juror is subject to a valid challenge for cause based on actual bias and, in certain limited circumstances, implied bias. See United States v. Torres, 128 F.3d 38, 43, 49 (2d Cir.1997) (discussing actual bias and implied bias standards, and upholding the trial judge's decision to strike a potential juror based on bias inferred from the similarity between the juror's previous structuring of financial transactions and the defendant's conduct that allegedly violated federal money laundering laws). Actual bias is bias in fact and focuses on the record at voir dire. Id. at 43. Johnson does not argue that Juror 457 was actually biased; he instead argues that bias should be implied. 33 The doctrine of presumed or implied, as opposed to actual, bias provides that, in certain `extreme' or `exceptional' cases, courts should employ a conclusive presumption that a juror is biased. United States v. Frost, 125 F.3d 346, 379 (6th Cir.1997) (citations omitted). A finding of implied bias is appropriate only where the relationship between a prospective juror and some aspect of the litigation is such that it is highly unlikely that the average person could remain impartial in his deliberations under the circumstances. Person v. Miller, 854 F.2d 656, 664 (4th Cir.1988) (rejecting a white supremacist group's claim of implied bias on the part of all potential black jurors in a criminal contempt proceeding to enforce an injunction against the operation of a paramilitary organization). Examples given in a concurring opinion by Justice O'Connor illustrate the extreme situations that might result in implied bias. They are that the juror is an actual employee of the prosecuting agency, that the juror is a close relative of one of the participants in the trial or the criminal transaction, or that the juror was a witness or somehow involved in the criminal transaction. Smith v. Phillips, 455 U.S. 209, 222, 102 S.Ct. 940, 71 L.Ed.2d 78 (1982) (O'Connor, J., concurring). 34 Johnson's reliance on the implied-bias doctrine fails for two reasons. First, the implied-bias doctrine may not even be viable after Smith. Courts that have reviewed the Smith decision, including this circuit, have suggested that the majority's treatment of the issue of implied juror bias calls into question the continued vitality of the doctrine. See, e.g., United States v. Herndon, No. 99-5642, 2000 WL 1290378, at  (6th Cir. Sept.6, 2000) (unpublished) (The [ Smith ] majority does not specifically say, one way or the other, whether there are any situations in which they would presume prejudice. Such a remedy, if it still exists, would presumably be limited to the type of extreme situations identified by Justice O'Connor in her . . . concurrence.); Conner v. Polk, 407 F.3d 198, 206 n. 4 (4th Cir.2005) (discussing the Smith majority's failure to adopt the implied-bias rationale and Justice O'Connor's concurring opinion, and concluding that [t]here may be some question as to whether implied bias remains a viable doctrine following the Supreme Court's majority opinion in Smith ). 35 Second, even if we assume that the implied-bias doctrine is still viable, Johnson has failed to show that this is one of the extreme or exceptional cases that merit such a finding. See Frost, 125 F.3d at 379. Juror 457's circumstances are simply not comparable to the examples provided by Justice O'Connor, especially in light of the juror's unqualified statement that she could keep her experiences separate. 36 Nor are the two cases relied upon by Johnson comparable to the circumstances here. One is Dyer v. Calderon, 151 F.3d 970, 979-84 (9th Cir.1998) (en banc), in which the court held that a finding of implied bias was proper where a juror lies materially and repeatedly during voir dire and to the trial judge in chambers. The court stated that the magnitude of [the juror]'s lies and her remarkable display of insouciance — her expressed feeling that only she would decide what matters — fatally undermine our confidence in her ability to fairly decide Dyer's fate. Id. at 984. 37 In the second case cited by Johnson, United States v. Eubanks, 591 F.2d 513, 516 (9th Cir.1979) (per curiam), the defendant was being prosecuted for a conspiracy to distribute heroin and for possession of heroin with the intent to distribute. The juror in question had two sons serving long prison terms for murder and robbery, perpetrated in furtherance of their heroin habit. Id. In the juror-qualification form, the juror lied and said that he had no children. Id. The juror also failed to respond to the trial judge's question about whether the jurors or members of [their] immediate families [had] ever been personally interested in the defense of a criminal case or a witness for the defense in a criminal case. Id. The Ninth Circuit found that the heroin involvement of the juror's sons bar[red] the inference that [the juror] served as an impartial juror, Id. at 517, essentially implying juror bias. 38 Dyer and Eubanks are easily distinguishable from the case before us, however, because the jurors at issue in those cases lied extensively to get on the jury. In Dyer, the court stated that [t]he individual who lies in order to improve his chances of serving has too much of a stake in the matter to be considered indifferent. . . . [T]his excess of zeal introduces the kind of unpredictable factor into the jury room that the doctrine of implied bias is meant to keep out. Dyer, 151 F.3d at 982. 39 Johnson has failed to show that the doctrine of implied bias is applicable to his case. Juror 457's responses were simply not so far off the mark as to show that this is an extreme or exceptional case to which the implied-bias doctrine is meant to apply. See Frost, 125 F.3d at 379; Smith v. Phillips, 455 U.S. at 222, 102 S.Ct. 940 (O'Connor, J., concurring). Consequently, Johnson has not demonstrated that the responses he contends were not forthcoming would have subjected Juror 457 to a valid challenge for cause, and thus has not shown that the state-court decision was contrary to or involved an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law as determined by the Supreme Court. 40