Opinion ID: 2570544
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Prejudging the Appropriate Penalty

Text: The fourth and final ground the trial court cited in support of its decision to remove Juror No. 5 was that he had commented on the question of penalty with Juror No. 1 during the guilt phase and had thereby prejudged the penalty. As with the other three alleged grounds for excusing the juror, we conclude the record does not establish a demonstrable reality that Juror No. 5 had prejudged the issue of penalty.
The only evidence Juror No. 5 had prejudged the issue of penalty came from Juror No. 1, who informed the court that during a break in the guilt phase proceedings, between the testimony of Michael Durbin and L.R., Juror No. 5 told him: The whole thing is a problem with authority, and this is what happens when you have no authority figure. According to Juror No. 1, Juror No. 5 made such comments on one or two occasions. Juror No. 1 said he thought nothing of the comments until the jury began deliberating penalty, that he did not respond to the comments, did not know if other jurors had overheard them, and did not know if Juror No. 5 made the same comment to other jurors. He recalled the comments when Juror No. 5 repeated them during the penalty phase deliberations. None of the other jurors heard Juror No. 5 make these comments, either outside the courtroom, outside the jury room or during the guilt phase deliberations. Several jurors, however, recalled Juror No. 5's discussing during penalty phase deliberations the absence in defendant's life of a role model and a traditional father/son relationship. For example, Juror No. 6 reported that on the second day of penalty phase deliberations, Juror No. 5 informed the jury that it didn't matter what [defendant] had done or who he was; that he could not [vote for] the death penalty if he came from a bad family. Juror No. 6 believed that Juror No. 5 had made up his mind at the outset of the penalty phase deliberations, but then retracted that statement, explaining that on the first day, Juror No. 5 had said nothing to suggest prejudgment and only discussed his experiences as an African-American man growing up and the importance of having a good family. During the trial court's examination of Juror No. 5 in the middle of penalty phase deliberations, the following colloquy occurred: THE COURT: . . . [¶] Did you say to another juror on your way out of the courtroom after Michael Durbin, or perhaps even during his testimony, but sometime in that time frame, `How can you hold someone responsible for their actions?' JUROR No. 5: I don't recall that, no. THE COURT: Okay. Does it sound like something you could have said? JUROR No. 5: I don't think so. THE COURT: `No'? Okay. Did you also comment on the lack of an authority figure and say, `This is what you expect when you have no authority figure, this type of behavior,' way back at that stage? JUROR No. 5: I may have. THE COURT: You may have? JUROR No. 5: Yes. THE COURT: All right. That's something you can see yourself saying back at that stage? JUROR No. 5: Sure. THE COURT: All right. But you don't recall specifically who you might have said it to or what exactly you said? JUROR No. 5: No. No, no. Although none of the other jurors heard the alleged out-of-court comments, and Juror No. 5 himself expressly denied any mention of not holding defendant responsible, the trial court credited Juror No. 1's account, concluding there is no doubt in my mind that between the first and second witnesses in the guilt phase, . . . that on the way out of the courtroom, and apparently unheard by other jurors, he made those comments. So that is my factual finding on that issue. The court later held that by attempting to communicate with [Juror No. 1] after the first guilt phase witness, . . . I find that he began to reveal his fundamental biases and prejudices, because I find that he made unfounded assumptions about the defendant and authority figures when at that time he had absolutely no evidence of such. Heas I said before, he didn't even have the benefit of the defense's opening statement in which they referenced such things, [¶] He then repeated those phrases, or something similar, in the penalty phase deliberations, which indicates that he was just carrying through his prejudgment of whatever he was going to do in the penalty phase.
(26) Jurors are prohibited by law from discussing the case until all the evidence has been presented, the trial court instructs the jury, and the jury has retired to deliberate. Section 1122, subdivision (a) provides in pertinent part that [a]fter the jury has been sworn and before the people's opening address, the court shall instruct the jury generally concerning its basic functions, duties, and conduct. The instructions shall include, among other matters, admonitions that the jurors shall not converse among themselves, or with anyone else, on any subject connected with the trial.... Defendant's jury was so instructed. [18] (See CALJIC No. 0.50 [pretrial admonition]; CALCRIM No. 101 [same].) Violation of this duty, in the form of discussing the case with a nonjuror, is serious misconduct. ( In re Hitchings, supra, 6 Cal.4th at p. 118.) The issue sometimes arises after a verdict has been rendered, when a criminal defendant attempts to undermine the validity of the verdict by claiming a juror violated the court's admonition not to speak to anyone connected with the case. In such circumstances, we have held that trivial violations of this rule do not require reversal because no prejudice to the defendant resulted. For example, in Stewart, supra, 33 Cal.4th 425, a sitting juror approached the defendant's girlfriend during a break in the trial and told her she was a very attractive woman. ( Id. at p. 509.) We affirmed the trial court's conclusion that the misconduct was of a `trifling nature' and did not warrant a new trial. ( Id. at p. 510.) The issue also arises before a verdict has been returned, when one party, as here, argues a juror should be removed for violating the court's admonition. In such circumstances, the same rule applies: Trivial violations that do not prejudice the parties do not require removal of a sitting juror. For example, in People v. Loot (1998) 63 Cal.App.4th 694 [74 Cal.Rptr.2d 324], a sitting juror encountered a deputy public defender in an elevator during a break in the trial. The juror asked her whether the prosecutor was available, that is, whether the juror could see the prosecutor socially. The appellate court agreed with the trial court that this brief conversation was a technical breach and constituted juror misconduct, but that it did not establish as a demonstrable reality that the juror was unable to perform her duty as a juror, and that any presumption of prejudice was rebutted. ( Id. at p. 698.) Among the factors to be considered when determining whether the presumption of prejudice has been rebutted are `the nature and seriousness of the misconduct, and the probability that actual prejudice may have ensued.' ( Ibid., italics added.) While the juror's questions were a technical violation of Penal Code section 1122, they were certainly not as serious as questions designed to obtain extrinsic evidence regarding the case itself. [Citation.] We see little possibility actual prejudice may have ensued. All 12 jurors voted defendant guilty. There is no evidence to suggest [the offending juror] would have been the lone holdout for acquittal but for her possible amorous interest in the prosecutor or that based solely on the prosecutor's attractiveness she was able to sway the other 11 jurors to a guilty verdict on each count. On the other hand, there is unrefuted evidence the juror did not discuss the incident on the elevator with the other jurors and her interest in [the prosecutor] did not affect her deliberations. ( Ibid. ) As were the comments to a nonjuror in People v. Loot, supra, 63 Cal.App.4th 694, Juror No. 5's solitary and fleeting comments to a fellow juror, made during a break early in the guilt phase portion of the trial, were a technical violation of both section 1122 and the court's admonition to the jury not to discuss the case. But the violation was a trivial one: one, possibly two sentences, spoken in rhetorical fashion and not in an obvious attempt to persuade anyone. Juror No. 1 averred that he did not respond, and none of the other jurors reported hearing the comments. No trials are perfect evidentiary or procedural errors are bound to occur ( People v. Garcia (2005) 36 Cal.4th 777, 808 [31 Cal.Rptr.3d 541, 115 P.3d 1191] (conc. & dis. opn. of Chin, J.)), and while jurors are told not to discuss the case until all the evidence has been presented and instructions given, they are not precluded from thinking about the case, nor would that be humanly possible. The situation in this case is even less serious than in Loot, for Juror No. 5 made his comments to another juror, not a witness, a party, an attorney or some other nonjuror. In any event, even deferring as we do to the trial court's factual conclusion that Juror No. 5 actually made the challenged comments at a break in the guilt phase proceedings, its further conclusion the comments demonstrated Juror No. 5's prejudgment of the penalty issue cannot withstand scrutiny. While we rely on our trial courts to assess a juror's state of mind in such circumstances, we have explained that such decisions are not subject to the substantial deference afforded other factual decisions. Instead, a court's decision to remove a juror must be supported by evidence showing a demonstrable reality that the juror is unable to perform the duties of a juror. ( People v. Barnwell, supra, 41 Cal.4th at p. 1052.) This is a heightened standard ( ibid. ) and requires a stronger evidentiary showing than mere substantial evidence ( People v. Cleveland, supra, 25 Cal.4th at p. 488 (conc. opn. of Werdegar, J.)). We conclude the evidence does not establish to a demonstrable reality that Juror No. 5 prejudged the question of penalty. That Juror No. 5 voted with the other 11 jurors to reach a unanimous guilt phase verdict, convicting defendant of murdering and torturing Uwe Durbin is undisputed. This fact of itself is inconsistent with the trial court's conclusion that Juror No. 5 harbored fundamental biases and prejudices and unfounded assumptions about the defendant and authority figures, to wit, that those who are raised without stable families and proper role models cannot be blamed for their antisocial behavior. Thereafter, at the beginning of the penalty phase deliberations, Juror No. 5 joined nine other jurors in a tentative, initial vote to impose the death penalty. Only four days later, after the two holdout jurors changed their minds, did he too change his mind and vote for life. These facts further indicate that Juror No. 5, when he uttered the challenged comments during a break in the guilt phase proceedings, had not firmly prejudged the case, that the issue was fluid in his mind, and that he was open to imposing the death penalty on defendant. It merely appears that, during the guilt phase, Juror No. 5 was entertaining various concerns about the case in his mind and improperly blurted out one of his thoughts at an inappropriate moment. Contrary to the trial court's ruling, such thoughts did not show Juror No. 5 had prejudged the case, for he voted to convict and initially voted for the death penalty. Under such circumstances, we cannot conclude the mere utterance of one or two short sentences establishes to a demonstrable reality that Juror No. 5 had prejudged the question of penalty. To the extent the trial court ruled otherwise in removing him from the jury in the middle of penalty phase deliberations, it erred. (27) In sum, the trial court cited four grounds for removing Juror No. 5: that he concealed bias on voir dire, that he relied on facts not in evidence when deliberating the penalty question, that he refused to follow the instruction that death was a more severe penalty than life in prison, and that he prejudged the question of penalty. Finding none of these grounds have been established to a demonstrable reality ( People v. Barnwell, supra, 41 Cal.4th at p. 1052), we have no choice but to reverse the penalty verdict. [19]