Opinion ID: 544767
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: right to voir dire the jury regarding prejudice

Text: 11 Defendant claims that the denial of his motion to voir dire the jurors individually constitutes reversible error and a new trial should be granted as a matter of law. We agree with the defendant that the article containing information concerning a prior plea agreement signed by Mr. Thompson was highly prejudicial. After the publication of the prejudicial information, the trial court's questions to the jurors were: 12 Let me inquire, before you begin your deliberations, has anything occurred during the weekend that would in any way affect your ability to continue to serve as fair and impartial jurors in this case? ... Is there any matter that you would wish to call to the Court's attention as perhaps bearing upon your ability to continue to serve as fair and impartial jurors? 13 Record, supp. 1, vol. 4, at 1202. Under the circumstances of the prejudicial article being called to the court's attention and the allegations that several jurors were previously observed reading the Daily Oklahoman, we conclude that the trial court's general inquiry as to prejudice was not sufficient to satisfy counsel's reasonable request that the jury be asked specifically about the newspaper story. At a minimum the court had a duty to ask whether the jurors had read the article concerning this case. 14 The facts of this case are essentially indistinguishable from a prior case by this court that we find controlling. In Mares v. United States, 383 F.2d 805 (10th Cir.1967), cert. denied, 394 U.S. 963, 89 S.Ct. 1314, 22 L.Ed.2d 564 (1969), a newspaper article printed under a bold headline concerning defendant's withdrawn plea of guilty and a confession which had been excluded was published during a trial in which there was no sequestration of jurors. Upon learning of the article, defense counsel called the article immediately to the attention of the court and moved for a mistrial. The court denied the motion. Defense counsel again requested a mistrial and a questioning of the jury concerning their knowledge of the article once the guilty verdict was returned. The court refused both motions. On appeal the government argued that the jurors were carefully admonished on their responsibility to refrain from exposure to publicity occurring during the trial. Nevertheless, we concluded that the failure of the trial court to ascertain whether any of the jurors had been exposed to the prejudicial article makes a new trial imperative. Mares, 383 F.2d at 809. 15 The facts of Mares are nearly identical to the present case. In both cases a newspaper article containing prejudicial information that had been excluded from the trial was published during the trial while the jurors were not sequestered. In Mares the article was preceded by a bold headline, but there was no evidence that any juror had actually read the newspaper. In the present case the article was preceded by a headline, appeared on the front page of the business section, and there was some evidence that the jurors may have been exposed to it. In both cases the judge refused to question the jurors concerning their knowledge of the articles. The fact that the article in Mares included a withdrawn guilty plea and a confession--while the article in this case discussed only a withdrawn guilty plea--goes only to the degree of prejudice, not necessarily to the requirement for voir dire. We have already concluded that the article in this case was extremely prejudicial. Thus we hold, in accordance with Mares, that the failure of the trial judge to inquire of the jurors concerning their knowledge of the article was an abuse of discretion. 16 Other cases relied on by the government are distinguishable. In United States v. Bradshaw, 787 F.2d 1385 (10th Cir.1986), we upheld a trial court's refusal to conduct an evidentiary hearing to inquire about the facts behind a relationship between a juror and two government witnesses. However, Bradshaw did not involve highly prejudicial evidence provided to a juror during trial. Bradshaw involved information that could have, and probably should have, been discovered and discussed during voir dire. The test in such a case is more lenient than in the case of prejudicial information which may have been received by the jurors during trial. 17 The government urges us to apply United States v. Greschner, 802 F.2d 373 (10th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 480 U.S. 908, 107 S.Ct. 1353, 94 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987), where we refused to reverse a trial judge who held that an evidentiary hearing was not necessary under facts very similar to the present case. In Greschner, a newspaper article containing prejudicial information, including the criminal records of the defendants, was published during trial. The trial court refused to grant a mistrial or to voir dire the jury concerning the article. We affirmed. The important factual difference between Greschner and this case, as well as Mares, is that in Greschner the matters contained in the newspaper article had already been admitted into evidence. In fact, the Greschner court explicitly distinguished Mares on this ground. Id. at 380-81 & n. 6. 18 In Greschner we stated that we will presume that jurors remain 'true to their oath and ... conscientiously observe the instructions and admonitions of the court'  absent evidence to the contrary. Greschner, 802 F.2d at 381 (citations omitted). In addition to the factual differences between this case and Greschner, we note that we cited the same principle outlined in Greschner in our Mares opinion. Mares, 383 F.2d at 808-09. However, in Mares we concluded that [t]he nature of the article was such that the trial court should have immediately ascertained whether any jurors had been exposed to it. Id. at 809. In the present case and in Mares, the reason for the lack of specific evidence concerning the juror's connection with the newspaper article was the trial court's failure to question the jurors about their exposure. In this case, defendant's motion to voir dire the jury contained allegations that jurors were seen reading the same newspaper that eventually carried the article during the week of trial. While the jurors had not been forbidden to read all newspapers--only accounts of the trial--here the reading of the same paper and the highly prejudicial nature of the article make the case for specific voir dire of the jury even stronger than the holding in Mares. At a minimum the trial court should have inquired generally whether any jurors read the article about this trial which was published during the weekend recess. 19 Finally, we note that our holding is supported by our recent case, United States v. Hornung, 848 F.2d 1040 (10th Cir.1988), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 1349, 103 L.Ed.2d 817 (1989). In Hornung, we explained that [w]hen a trial court is apprised of the fact that an extrinsic influence may have tainted the trial, the proper remedy is a hearing to determine the circumstances of the improper contact and the extent of the prejudice, if any, to the defendant. Id. at 1045 (citations omitted). Thus, we hold that on the facts of this case, where general newspaper reading was observed and information contained in a newspaper article was highly prejudicial, it was an abuse of discretion not to inquire whether any jurors were exposed to the article. In light of this error, we must presume that the jurors actually read the article and that it constituted prejudice. 20 In a similar situation we presumed in Mares that at least one person was aware of the information in the article, and we concluded that a new trial must be held because of the lack of an evidentiary hearing. Mares, 383 F.2d at 809. The article in Mares contained information about the defendant's withdrawn plea of guilty and a prior confession that had been excluded by the trial court. These two pieces of information went straight to the issue of guilt, that was the question before the jury. Although the Mares court did not discuss the actual impact of this information on the jury, given the nature of the article it would have been impossible to hold that it was beyond a reasonable doubt that the information did not contribute to the verdict. 21 As in Mares, the information in the article in this case was highly prejudicial and concerned the issue of guilt--the only question before the jury. In this case, a four-column article containing accurate factual information concerning the trial proceedings was headlined in bold lettering by the language Son Says He Made Payments for Father. On the previous day Mr. Thompson's son had testified before the jury. The article also contained a reference to Mr. Thompson's prior plea agreement. The entire sentence reads: Dan Thompson's attorney, Stephen Jones of Enid, told U.S. District Judge Lee R. West on Thursday that the minister and his son had both signed agreements to plead guilty in the case last year while being represented by another attorney. Saturday Oklahoman & Times, March 4, 1989, at 23, col. 2. We hold that under the facts of this case it was an abuse of discretion for the trial court not to voir dire the jury concerning the challenged article.