Opinion ID: 483595
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Motion to Modify Record on Appeal

Text: 45 Hillsberg has filed a motion under Rule 10(e) of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure to add an affidavit of Hillsberg's trial counsel to the record on appeal. In the affidavit, counsel relates that he had a conversation with one of the jurors after the trial. The juror told him that she and another of the jurors did not believe that Hillsberg had the requisite intent, but the two acquiesced in the decision of the panel. She also said that all the jurors had wanted to hear the psychiatrist's answer to the excluded question. 46 The purpose of Rule 10(e) is to ensure that the court on appeal has a complete record of the proceedings leading to the ruling appealed from, not to facilitate collateral attacks on the verdict. Rule 10(e) does not give this court authority to admit on appeal any document which was not made a part of the record in the district court. Borden Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission, 495 F.2d 785, 788 (7th Cir.1974). Republic Steel Corporation v. Pennsylvania Engineering Corporation, 785 F.2d 174, 179 n. 6 (7th Cir.1986). The court below denied Hillsberg's motion, made almost four months after trial, to add the affidavit to the record on appeal under Rule 10(e). The court ruled that While the rule allows the district court to correct omissions and misstatements in the record, it does not allow the court to add to the record on appeal matters that might have been but were not placed before it in the course of the proceedings leading to the judgment under review. Immediately before discharging the jury, the court expressly asked if either side wished the jury polled. Both sides declined. This court has recently emphasized that jury verdicts cannot be attacked with evidence of the jurors' mental processes. United States v. Schwartz, 787 F.2d 257, 261-62 (7th Cir.1986). Moreover, in view of our holding regarding the psychiatrist's testimony the information proffered in the affidavit would not affect the outcome of this appeal.