Opinion ID: 488843
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Jury Impropriety

Text: 25 As their last point on appeal, Appellants argue that an article written by juror Whited describing the jury deliberations in Appellants' trial indicates that juror Leeds may have voted under duress and that, therefore, the verdicts against them may be contrary to the law of unanimity. They assert that the district court should have investigated these allegations of impropriety. 26 The Whited article indicated that all the jurors believed that the law on United States jurisdiction over stateless vessels covered the Somape IV, but that several of the jurors, and particularly Robert Leeds, were concerned about Coast Guard seizure of foreign vessels on the high seas. The article indicated that Leeds wanted to know [w]hat gives the United States the right to pass a law unilaterally making the high seas our sphere of influence and that, although Leeds favored a guilty verdict, he wasn't going to vote until this had been clarified. Finally, the jurors sent a written question to the judge asking whether the law giving the United States the power to seize vessels on the high seas was passed by the United States alone or in conjunction with other nations. The judge recalled the jury to the courtroom and instructed them that Congress had passed the law and that whether other nations are involved in any way is not germane to the issue before you. The article states that, after return to the jury room, Leeds stated All right. I'll go along. But only because I'm being practical, under duress. Appellants filed post-trial motions based in part on alleged jury impropriety, which were denied by the district court without an evidentiary hearing. 27 The trial court has broad discretion as to how to proceed when confronted with an allegation of jury misconduct, including discretion with regard to the initial decision as to whether to interrogate jurors. Yonn, 702 F.2d at 1344-45. Cases dealing with the degree of investigation required fall along a continuum focusing on two factors: the certainty that some impropriety has occurred and the seriousness of the accusation. United States v. Caldwell, 776 F.2d 989, 998 (11th Cir.1985). The more speculative or unsubstantiated the allegation of misconduct, the less burden there is to investigate; the more serious the potential jury contamination, especially where alleged extrinsic influence is involved, the heavier the burden to investigate. Id. Appellants argue that, because the allegation in this case comes from a fellow juror and therefore is reliable and because the investigation would only require that juror Leeds be interviewed, the district court abused its discretion in not investigating. 28 We find no merit in this contention. Post-verdict inquiries into the existence of impermissible extraneous influences on a jury's deliberations are allowed under appropriate circumstances, but inquiries that seek to probe the mental processes of jurors are impermissible. Llewellyn v. Stynchcombe, 609 F.2d 194, 196 (5th Cir.1980); accord, United States v. Campbell, 684 F.2d 141, 151 (D.C.Cir.1982) (jury's verdict will not be upset on basis of juror's post-trial report of jury deliberations unless extraneous influence is shown; evidence of discussion among jurors, intimidation of one juror by another, and other intra-jury influences on the verdict are not competent to impeach the verdict.) See United States v. Gipson, 553 F.2d 453, 457 n. 6 (5th Cir.1977) (juror's testimony relating to mental process by which verdict reached is not competent evidence to impeach that verdict); Fed.R.Evid. 606(b) (same). 29 The defendant bears the burden of establishing that extrinsic matters have been considered by the jury during its deliberations. United States v. Winkle, 587 F.2d 705, 714 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 827, 100 S.Ct. 51, 62 L.Ed.2d 34 (1979). It is only when the defendant has made a colorable showing of extrinsic influence that the court must investigate the asserted impropriety. Id. 30 The Whited article is insufficient to raise an inference that there was any jury impropriety in this case. The information in the Whited article merely describes the jury's internal deliberations and the mental processes by which its various members reached their verdict. It raises no inference that the verdict was the result of improper consideration of extraneous information or duress from extrinsic sources. 6 31 The judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.