Opinion ID: 1987576
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Impeachment of verdict.

Text: A juror cannot be examined to establish a ground for a new trial, except to establish that the verdict was made by lot. RCr 10.04. Thus, in Gall v. Commonwealth, Ky., 702 S.W.2d 37 (1985), we held incompetent a juror's testimony that the jury improperly considered Appellant's mental illness and parole eligibility during penalty phase deliberations. Id. at 44. In Grace v. Commonwealth, Ky., 459 S.W.2d 143 (1970), our predecessor court held that RCr 10.04 precluded consideration of the affidavit of a juror who swore that she had not agreed to the verdict. See also Howard v. Commonwealth, Ky., 240 S.W.2d 616, 619 (1951) (same result under former Criminal Code of Practice § 272). In Jones v. Commonwealth, Ky., 450 S.W.2d 812, 814 (1970), our predecessor court held that RCr 10.04 precluded consideration of an affidavit of a juror that the jurors had considered matters not in evidence during their deliberations. It has long been the rule that jurors may give evidence to prove that the jury was not guilty of misconduct but may not impeach the verdict by stating that they acted wrongfully or irregularly. Bowman v. Commonwealth, 284 Ky. 103, 143 S.W.2d 1051, 1054 (1940). The Sixth Circuit has also endorsed the incompetence of such evidence, in the course of holding unconstitutional an interpretation of Ohio Rule of Evidence 606(B) that precluded consideration of an affidavit attesting to improper outside influence on the jury (namely that one juror performed an outside experiment and shared the results with the other jurors). Doan v. Brigano, 237 F.3d 722, 733 (6th Cir. 2001) (A review of this misconduct stands in stark contrast to an examination of internal factors affecting the jury. Whether the jury understood the evidence presented at trial or the judge's instructions following the presentation of the evidence ... are all internal matters for which juror testimony may not be used to challenge a final verdict.), abrogated on other grounds as recognized by Maples v. Stegall, 340 F.3d 433 (6th Cir. 2003). The same result would obtain in a case originally tried in our federal courts: Upon an inquiry into the validity of a verdict or indictment, a juror may not testify as to any matter or statement occurring during the course of the jury's deliberations or to the effect of anything upon that or any other juror's mind or emotions as influencing the juror to assent to or dissent from the verdict or indictment or concerning the juror's mental processes in connection therewith, except that a juror may testify on the question whether extraneous prejudicial information was improperly brought to the jury's attention or whether any outside influence was improperly brought to bear upon any juror. Fed. R. Ev. 606(b). The United States Supreme Court adopted the rule as a matter of public policy long before the adoption of the rules of evidence. Public policy forbids that a matter resting in the personal consciousness of one juror should be received to overthrow the verdict, because, being personal, it is not accessible to other testimony. It gives to the secret thought of one the power to disturb the expressed conclusions of twelve. Its tendency is to produce bad faith on the part of a minority; to induce an apparent acquiescence with the purpose of subsequent dissent; to induce tampering with individual jurors subsequent to the verdict. Mattox v. United States, 146 U.S. 140, 148, 13 S.Ct. 50, 52, 36 L.Ed. 917 (1892) (quotation omitted). Thus, Juror 64's alleged statement to the DPA investigators could not be used to impeach the verdict by showing misconduct on his part during deliberations.