Opinion ID: 853498
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Jury Influence

Text: The defendant contends that the post-conviction court erred in rejecting his claim that he was denied an impartial jury and that a new trial is warranted because the jury that convicted him was racially biased. The defendant contends that one juror's vote against the recommendation of death was not taken seriously because the color of her skin was the same as the defendant's, Brief of Petitioner-Appellant at 48, and that the presence of bias at the penalty phase shows that the jury was biased at the time of conviction. In support of this claim, the defendant produced a note written by the jury foreman (a Caucasian male) during the penalty deliberations that informed the trial court that he believed that the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on death due to a race issue. The defendant also presented testimony from one African American juror who denied knowledge of the contents of the note. She testified that the jury foreman had been angry with her for being uncooperative on the issue of the death recommendation. The juror testified that the jury foreman attributed the disagreement to a race thing, but denied that her decision was race-based. P.C.R. Record at 2620. After reviewing the defendant's evidence on post-conviction (the testimony of one juror and a copy of the note sent to the trial court), the record of voir dire, and the trial record as a whole, the post-conviction court concluded that the defendant had not met his burden of showing that he was denied an impartial jury. The burden is on the defendant to show a juror's bias or prejudice. Martin v. State, 535 N.E.2d 493, 495 (Ind.1989). Both the juror who testified and another African American juror who was not identified agreed with the guilty verdict. The defendant's evidence fails to establish that either the jury foreman or the jury as a whole was racially motivated to find the defendant guilty. We cannot conclude that the evidence leads unerringly and unmistakably to a conclusion contrary to that of the post-conviction court.