Opinion ID: 2293324
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The jury's access to the prosecutor's laptop during deliberations.

Text: Lastly, Weber argues that the trial judge denied his right to a fair trial by giving the jury access, during deliberations, to the [prosecutor's] laptop and everything on the laptop which was not admitted into evidence. When the jury retired from the courtroom to deliberate, the prosecutor left his laptop in the courtroom in case the jury wanted to review a CD copy of the gas station surveillance video. [38] The prosecutor already used this same laptop during the trial to play the video for the jury. It is unclear from the record whether the jury could have played the CD by other means, had the prosecutor removed his laptop from the courtroom and left only the CD. The prosecutor asserted that, to the extent the jury deemed it necessary to review the CD, he preferred that they watch it on the laptop rather than project it onto the screen. [39] He argued that watching the CD on the laptop would allow the jurors to see the assailant's face more clearly. [40] The prosecutor also represented that the laptop belonged to his son and did not contain any other materials related to the case. [41] Because the record does not rebut those assertions, we conclude that the trial judge did not abuse his discretion by allowing the jury access to the laptop.