Opinion ID: 195094
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Jury Taint.

Text: At one point during the trial, a juror joked about one of the defendants. The district court proceeded to question two jurors out of earshot of the venire. After identifying the individual responsible for the wisecrack, the court dismissed her. Appellants moved unsuccessfully for a mistrial and now posit error based on the denial of their motion. We find nothing amiss. When a potentially taint- producing event threatens to mar the jury's integrity, the district court has fairly broad discretion in deciding whether the situation is susceptible to remediation, and if so, what corrective action might be appropriate. See Boylan, 898 F.2d at 258; Gutierrez-Rodriguez v. Cartagena, 882 F.2d 553, 570 (1st Cir. 1989). Unless the event leaves so sour a taste that less extreme palliatives will prove inadequate to undo serious damage, the mere possibility of jury taint does not necessitate a mistrial. See United States v. Hunnewell, 891 F.2d 955, 960-61 (1st Cir. 1989). Mindful of the trial court's superior coign of vantage, we accord great respect to a district judge's finding that a jury has not been irreparably tainted. See Boylan, 898 F.2d at 258. Here, the judge employed a combination of amelioratives: he removed the offending juror from the case and issued hortatory instructions to the remaining jurors. Given what transpired, the judge's prescription seems reasonably well 65 calculated to protect the defendants' legitimate rights; the joke, albeit tasteless, did not work a per se deprivation of appellants' right to a fair trial. Consequently, the court acted appropriately in refusing to abort the trial. See Hunnewell, 891 F.2d at 961.