Opinion ID: 658352
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Voir Dire on Pretrial Publicity

Text: 105 Appellants claim that the district court failed adequately to voir dire prospective jurors regarding media exposure and awareness of the defendants' shackling. A district court has wide discretion in conducting voir dire regarding pretrial publicity or other potential sources of juror bias. Mu'Min, 500 U.S. at ----, 111 S.Ct. at 1906. Several general questions [about pretrial publicity] addressed to the entire panel of jurors, followed by individual questioning of jurors who respond affirmatively to the initial inquiries, may be sufficient if it becomes clear that few jurors have any knowledge of the case. United States v. Giese, 597 F.2d 1170, 1183 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 979, 100 S.Ct. 480, 62 L.Ed.2d 405 (1979); see also United States v. Polizzi, 500 F.2d 856, 879-80 (9th Cir.1974), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1120, 95 S.Ct. 802, 42 L.Ed.2d 820 (1975). In this case, group questioning revealed that only six of approximately 88 prospective jurors were aware of information beyond that contained in the indictment. The district court conducted individual voir dire of those six jurors. Three of the six were excused for cause; the other three were not challenged. The district court's failure to engage in the more intensive probe of each juror requested by the defense did not render the defendant[s'] trial fundamentally unfair. Mu'Min, 500 U.S. at ----, 111 S.Ct. at 1905. 106