Opinion ID: 1152592
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to assert claim of jury misconduct.

Text: (34) Defendant asserts defense counsel should have moved to excuse Juror Thompson from the jury for misconduct. The record reflects that after the guilt verdict, just before the prosecutor presented evidence at the penalty trial, a person approached Juror Thompson in the hall outside the courtroom and started talking about a boy and said that he was a bad boy who had a violent temper. He said there had been a trail of blood around the house after the crime, and at this point, Ms. Thompson realized he was talking about the case in which she was a juror. She surmised that he was a neighbor of defendant's. She told him she could not discuss the case, and terminated the conversation. The court examined Thompson about this incident. She assured the court that she did not hear anything that would cause her to have an adverse reaction toward either side in this case, and that the conversation did not affect her thinking about the case. She told defense counsel she was bothered by the conversation because she knew it was against the rules. The court admonished her not to discuss the matter with any other juror. The court asked counsel if there was any challenge, and counsel said no, though counsel might want to raise it later when we find out who this individual is. No later challenge ensued. It is true that a juror's inadvertent receipt of information outside the court proceedings is considered `misconduct' and creates a presumption of prejudice, which, if not rebutted, requires a new trial. ( People v. Zapien, supra, 4 Cal.4th 929, 994.) The issue here, however, is not jury misconduct but a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel for failing to raise the issue of juror misconduct at trial. (See People v. Billings (1981) 124 Cal. App.3d 422, 433 [177 Cal. Rptr. 392] [claim of juror misconduct waived if not raised in trial court], overruled on other grounds in People v. Karis (1988) 46 Cal.3d 612, 642, fn. 22 [250 Cal. Rptr. 659, 758 P.2d 1189]; see also People v. Wisely (1990) 224 Cal. App.3d 939, 947 [274 Cal. Rptr. 291].) Obviously, counsel did not merely forget to challenge the juror, but decided not to do so. The choice was tactical; the question is whether, on this record, the decision not to challenge the juror was an incompetent tactical choice. Given the juror's assurance that the conversation had not affected her, and the court's admonition not to discuss the matter with the other jurors, we cannot say that the record establishes any incompetence. Defendant claims counsel also failed to act reasonably diligently because, ignoring the stage of trial and the aggravating evidence Ms. Thompson had just heard, defense counsel failed to probe the impact of the characterization of defendant as bad and violent. Our review of the record, however, indicates counsel did examine the juror on the impact of her conversation. That counsel did not use particular words in doing so does not establish incompetence.