Opinion ID: 743614
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Whether the mandatory minimum sentence Rabon received is constitutional; and

Text: 30 XI. Whether the district court's refusal to permit Rosa to collaterally challenge a prior conviction used to enhance his sentence was proper? 31 I. Whether the district court's rulings denying Defendants' motions for a mistrial and for a voir dire of the jury were proper. 32 On appeal, Defendants initially argue that the judge erred in denying their motion for a mistrial, and in refusing to conduct a voir dire of the jury, based on the presence in the jury room of transcripts of certain tapes which had been admitted in evidence but never played at trial.
33 During her testimony, government witness Ress authenticated a number of the tapes the government introduced in evidence. She testified that she was familiar with the voices of Defendants (except Aguilera and Iturralde), and further that she had reviewed the transcripts. She testified that the transcripts accurately reflected the conversations on the tapes (except the Spanish tapes, as Ress did not speak Spanish) and also properly identified the speakers on the tapes. 34 During the trial, the government played only 428 of the roughly 650 tapes received in evidence, leaving more than 200 unplayed. The tapes played were of conversations in either English, Spanish, or Assyrian. The jury was provided a binder during trial which contained transcriptions of all of the roughly 650 recorded conversations, and which they were referred to and examined while tapes were being played. 35 Four days prior to closing arguments, the trial judge discussed with the lawyers out of the jury's presence which exhibits would be given to the jury for consideration during deliberations. Some of Defendants' lawyers sought to bar the jury from receiving transcripts of the English-language tapes, but the trial judge overruled their objections, ruling that, since there had been so many tapes played throughout the course of the trial, all of the transcripts, whether they were of English or foreign-language conversations, would be made available to the jury during their deliberations. 5 At that time, the judge also directed the respective attorneys to place the tapes and transcripts on a table, in order that they would be available to all of them for inspection prior to their submission to the jury. The trial judge specifically informed all of the attorneys for both sides that he expected them to review the exhibits prior to them being given to the jury and stated, [s]o if there is any question, it can be raised before the marshall takes the material to the jury room. 36 Four days later, on the day scheduled for closing arguments, the judge met with the lawyers to review the proposed instructions and hear and rule on any final objections. At that time, counsel for Iturralde and counsel for Rabon objected to eight specific tapes and transcripts being given to the jury on the ground that the tapes were not played during trial. The government responded that, since all of the tapes and transcripts had previously been admitted in evidence, they should be available for the jury. The court agreed with the defense lawyers and sustained the objections to the eight tapes. While acknowledging that all tapes and transcripts had been admitted in evidence, the judge nonetheless stated: if [the government] never presented [the unplayed tapes and corresponding transcripts] to them, why should they listen to them, or why should they be sent back to them? The judge ordered the government to remove those eight transcripts from the books, and the government complied with the judge's order. Immediately thereafter, counsel for Magana observed that there were a number of other tapes which, though admitted in evidence, had not been played, and for which the jury had not reviewed the corresponding transcripts. The following colloquy between Judge Hart and counsel for Magana then occurred: 37 [COUNSEL FOR MAGANA]: It seems, your Honor, that there are a number of tapes and transcripts in there that if they didn't play the tape, then they ought to remove them all. 38 THE COURT: Well, you tell us which ones they are. I know you have been following the case with great care, as well. 39 [COUNSEL FOR MAGANA]: I have, your Honor. I am just saying there are quite a few. Those that apply to other people, I haven't, but the government knows. 40 THE COURT: I tried to keep track of them. I am sure you did, as well. So let me know if there is a problem. 41 (Tr. at 2832-33.) No further discussion was had about the tapes and transcripts prior to the commencement of the jury deliberations. 42 On the second full day of deliberations, the jury sent a note to the judge, asking: Is it correct that all transcripts and notebooks are in evidence even though the related tape is not in the jury room? At that time, the court learned that, except for the eight tapes and transcripts which he had specifically ordered removed, the transcripts for the approximately 200-plus unplayed tapes that had been received in evidence had not been removed from the binders which had been sent back to the jury room. However, the unplayed tapes themselves were not made available to the jurors. 43 At this time, the judge questioned the government's lawyers, who explained that they interpreted the court's prior order as requiring them to only remove the eight specific tapes and transcripts objected to by counsel for Rabon and Iturralde. 6 The lawyers for the government reiterated that the tapes and transcripts at issue had been admitted in evidence prior to trial. The prosecutors further acknowledged that they were aware that the judge did not want transcripts of unplayed tapes sent to the jury, however they did not believe they had enough time to go through all of the jury's binders and remove the 200-plus transcripts prior to the commencement of deliberations. The district court stated that the fact that it was administratively inconvenient was no excuse for the government's failure to remove the transcripts. Defendants all moved for a mistrial based on the presence of the transcripts in the jury room. 44 Despite his displeasure with the actions of the government lawyers, the district judge denied Defendants' motion for a mistrial. In his ruling, he agreed with the government and noted that the transcripts at issue had all been admitted in evidence, and that based upon this, there would have been no question had the government played the tapes that the jury would have had all of the transcripts for review. He also observed that none of Defendants had specifically moved for the exclusion of the transcripts of the unplayed tapes, though he commented that he would probably have granted such a motion had it been made in a proper and timely manner. Defense counsel for Magana asserted that the court's response to his prior objection placed the responsibility on the government to remove all transcripts of unplayed tapes. In response, the judge stated: 45 I gave you [defense counsel] that responsibility. I said it on the record. Check those [binders] yourselves. Be sure that what goes back is correct. That is your responsibility as attorneys to do that. You can't cast that entirely on the government. The fault lies both on the government and the defense counsel. 46 (Tr. at 3315.) Judge Hart then ruled that the jury would be sent home for the day, and at that time he ordered the marshall to retrieve all binders from the jury room and instructed the attorneys (both government and defense counsel) to remove all transcripts from the binders which referred to tapes that had not been played during trial. 47 When the trial reconvened after the transcripts in question had been removed, the judge responded to the jury's question by giving this curative instruction: 48 You have all the English-language tapes that are in evidence. 49 Some transcripts were inadvertently provided to you for tapes that were never played. During the weekend, all of those transcripts were removed from your transcript notebooks. If, during deliberations, you read a transcript for which there was no tape, you must disregard what was in that transcript. It may not be considered in reaching your verdict. 50 (Tr. at 3339.) When Defendants renewed their motions for a mistrial, the judge once again made clear that he would not declare a mistrial. He agreed with Defendants that the transcripts of unplayed tapes should not have been sent back to the jury room; however, he reiterated that the transcripts contained information which the government could have placed before the jury had the tapes been played. He also concluded that the government's decision not to play the tapes spared the jury from hearing cumulative material, and he suggested that the fact that the jury alertly picked up on the absence of certain tapes meant that they were following instructions by listening to the tapes, and not referring to the transcripts alone. Finally, he reiterated his belief that the defense lawyers shared the responsibility for the episode, since he had specifically directed them to review all the evidence that was being given to the jury prior to its submission. Judge Hart also declined, in response to the defense lawyers' requests, to conduct a voir dire of the jurors concerning whether they had looked at the transcripts and what, if any, effect those transcripts had on their deliberations. 51 Defendants argue that the judge should have granted their motion for a mistrial based on the presence of the transcripts of admitted but unplayed tapes in the jury room. We review the denial of a motion for mistrial under the abuse of discretion standard. United States v. Best, 939 F.2d 425, 431 (7th Cir.1991) (en banc). 7 Under the abuse of discretion standard, the proper inquiry is not how the reviewing court would have ruled if it had been considering the case in the first place, but rather whether any reasonable person could agree with the district court. Id. at 429 (internal quotation marks omitted). 52 Throughout their briefs and at oral argument, Defendants have repeatedly suggested that the government's actions in failing to remove the transcripts of unplayed tapes from the binders sent back to the jury room amounted to deliberate prosecutorial misconduct. We see no need to discuss this allegation. Even if a defendant alleges that improper material was before the jury as a result of prosecutorial misconduct, he must still show that there was some prejudice or substantial right affected by the presence of the transcripts in the jury room. Best, 939 F.2d at 431. As discussed below, Defendants in this case have failed to demonstrate that they were prejudiced in any way by the presence of the transcripts of the unplayed tapes in the jury room. 53 As an initial matter, we observe that Defendants failed during trial to make a timely and specific motion requesting that all the tapes which had been admitted in evidence but not played not be presented to the jury for deliberation, and that the corresponding transcripts of those tapes be removed from the binders and not be displayed to the jury. Counsel for Magana did not object nor did he argue until the day scheduled for closing arguments, nearly five weeks after the commencement of the trial, that there were a number of tapes that had not been played and should be removed, and the judge responded that, if counsel sought to have any tapes in particular removed, he was directed to bring those particular tapes to the court's attention prior to their submission to the jury. Thereafter, with the exception of the eight specific tapes and transcripts objected to by counsel for Rabon and Iturralde, which were removed by the government, neither counsel for Magana, nor any of the other defense lawyers, explicitly requested that the judge remove any other unplayed tapes and corresponding transcripts. Second, as Judge Hart noted, he specifically instructed the lawyers for both sides when he conferred with them concerning the final jury instructions, four days prior to the date of closing argument, to place all of the exhibits introduced on a table in the court, and directed them to review the exhibits prior to their submission to the jury so that they could examine the material and object if such was proper. It appears that counsel for Iturralde and Rabon were attentive to which tapes had not been played, as they objected to eight specific tapes and transcripts prior to closing arguments, and as a result those tapes and transcripts were removed. It also appears, however, that none of the other defense lawyers examined the exhibits to discover and identify the numerous transcripts of unplayed tapes which should have been excluded. Given that over 200 tapes were not played at trial, even a cursory examination of the transcript binders at some point over the four-day period would certainly have revealed the presence of the transcripts of unplayed tapes. In this regard, we observe, as we have in the past, that it is not the responsibility of the prosecutor or the judge to do the work of the defense counsel. United States v. Zambrana, 841 F.2d 1320, 1328 (7th Cir.1988). 54 Further, as the trial judge observed, the transcripts and tapes had been properly admitted in evidence. We have observed in the past that  '[c]ourts possess wide discretion in determining whether to permit the jury to use written transcripts as aids in listening to tape recordings.'  Id. at 1335 (quoting United States v. Keck, 773 F.2d 759, 766 (7th Cir.1985)). Indeed, we have specifically approved of the practice of sending transcripts back to the jury room. See United States v. Crowder, 36 F.3d 691, 697 (7th Cir.1994) (The decision to allow the transcripts to be used during deliberations is committed to the sound discretion of the district court.). Therefore, had the government opted (as it could have done) to play all 650 of the tapes during trial, there would have been no question but that the transcripts could have gone to the jury without any further discussion. Thus, this situation presents a far less compelling case for a finding of prejudice than prior cases before this court, in which material extraneous to the admitted evidence was placed before the jury. For example, in United States v. Sababu, 891 F.2d 1308 (7th Cir.1989), we held that it was not an abuse of discretion for the trial judge to refuse to declare a mistrial where a transcript of a taped conversation which had been excluded from evidence was inadvertently sent back to the jury room. 891 F.2d at 1333-34. As we stated in Best: If exposure to such improper evidence did not warrant a new trial in ... [cases where the jury was exposed to improper evidence], the jury's exposure in this case to copies of documents properly admitted in evidence in a binder that the jury had used for the length of the trial cannot warrant a new trial. 939 F.2d at 431 (emphasis in original) (citing, inter alia, Sababu). Defendants have made no effort to delineate anything in these transcripts which contained material prejudicial to them. 55 Finally, even assuming that the transcripts were improperly before the jury, the trial court gave a curative instruction specifically informing the jurors that the transcripts for tapes which had not been played had been removed, and if they had read any such transcripts prior to their removal, you must disregard what was in that transcript. It may not be considered in reaching your verdict. Thus, the instruction specifically directed the jury not to consider any of those transcripts in reaching their verdicts. As a jury is presumed to follow the court's instructions, see Evans v. Young, 854 F.2d 1081, 1084 (7th Cir.1988), and since Defendants have failed at any time (including on appeal) to offer any evidence that any of the material contained within the transcripts was prejudicial, we refuse to conclude that Defendants suffered any prejudice as a result of the presence of the transcripts in the jury room. 56
57 We likewise disagree with Defendants' contention that the trial judge erred in refusing to conduct an individual voir dire of the jurors to determine the potential prejudicial impact of the transcripts. Trial judges are vested with wide latitude with respect to remedying the potential prejudicial influence that may arise when jurors are exposed to improper information, and the district court's decision not to conduct a voir dire will only be reversed for an abuse of discretion. Sababu, 891 F.2d at 1334; see United States v. Carson, 9 F.3d 576, 589 (7th Cir.1993). 58 When refusing to conduct a voir dire of the jury, the experienced trial judge noted that the defendants had failed to delineate any specific examples of prejudicial material in those transcripts. This was particularly noteworthy since defense counsel had an opportunity at the time the tapes and transcripts were admitted to argue that they contained irrelevant or prejudicial information, and were specifically told four days prior to the start of closing arguments to inspect the exhibits that were being sent back to the jury. Furthermore, the trial judge observed that conducting a voir dire of the jury during deliberations can be fraught with problems, since it could cause the jurors to focus disproportionately on the removed material. This court has noted its agreement with this observation in the past. In Sababu, we observed that such a voir dire could conceivably jeopardize an accused's rights, because it is possible that polling jurors individually could cause  'the jurors polled to attach undue significance to the incident.'  891 F.2d at 1334 (quoting United States v. Williams, 822 F.2d 1174, 1189-90 (D.C.Cir.1987)). As in Sababu, in this case we conclude that the trial court did not commit error in refusing to conduct a voir dire and deciding instead to give a curative limiting instruction. 59