Opinion ID: 537726
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Newspaper Articles in Jury Room

Text: 77 Defendants' final jury challenge pertains to the incident involving the newspaper articles in the jury room at the outset of the jury's deliberations. As with the bribe attempt, defendants' argument alleges juror exposure to prejudicial news coverage. Thus, Porcaro's three element standard governs our consideration of this incident as well. 78 For essentially the same reasons articulated in our discussion of the bribe attempt coverage, we find that defendants cannot succeed under Porcaro 's three-prong test. At the outset, we note that prong two has been satisfied: there was juror exposure to news coverage. Specifically, juror # 104 admitted to glancing at portions of the articles found in the deliberation room. As with the bribe attempt incident, however, defendants fail on the other two elements of the test. First, we have doubts about whether the articles to which at least juror # 104 was exposed were prejudicial within the meaning of the three-prong standard. The articles were factually oriented accounts of incidents allegedly involving certain jurors. They do not appear to have been sensational in nature. Nor did the articles contain extra-judicial substantive information about issues at trial or the defendants' guilt with respect to the charges against them. 79 In addition, as it did in the other incidents, the district court thoroughly questioned each of the challenged jurors to ascertain the extent of their exposure and their continued ability to judge the defendants impartially. Each juror assured the court of his continued impartiality, and the court was satisfied with these assurances. In light of the deference due the district court's determinations, we find no error in its retention of the challenged jurors on the jury. See Chang An-Lo, 851 F.2d at 559.