Opinion ID: 1722313
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: improper materials in the jury room

Text: Defendant assigns as error the trial court's denial of his motion for a mistrial based on the jury's viewing certain material not admitted in evidence. When the jury began its deliberations certain documents that had been admitted in evidence at the motion hearings but not at the trial were accidentally sent into the jury room along with the exhibits properly received in evidence. Among the fugitive documents were two police reports which revealed the fact that defendant was then on bail awaiting trial for certain sex offenses involving a child and which contained references to his mental history. When the error was discovered the improper materials were retrieved, and an examination of the foreman and other jury members was undertaken by the trial court to determine the extent to which the jury had been exposed to the contents of the documents. It appears that the documents were read only once, one juror reading aloud to the whole group. [8] Thereafter the trial court individually voir dired the jury on the effect of what they might have seen or heard upon their impartiality. Each juror was asked, in substance, whether he or she could disregard the information in the reports and render a just verdict solely upon the evidence properly received. Each juror answered in the affirmative. A motion by the defense for a mistrial was then denied. Before the jury returned to its deliberations the judge explained to them that the reports' presence in the jury room had resulted from a mistake by court personnel not attributable to either party. The court also gave the following instruction: You are instructed that you must disregard, ladies and gentlemen, each and every one of these documents which were mistakenly placed before you. You are to decide, ladies and gentlemen, the case solely upon the basis of the evidence brought out at the trial as elicited on this witness stand and the exhibits that are properly before you. You may now retire to your deliberations. Thank you very much for your kind patience. I am very sorry. The jury then deliberated some ten additional hours, including a return to court to be reinstructed on the elements of first and second degree murder, before returning a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. Defendant contends that the unfortunate incident we have described hopelessly prejudiced his case and that notwithstanding the protective measures taken by the trial court, declaration of a mistrial was required. Defendant's motion for a mistrial was addressed to the sound discretion of the trial court, and its denial of the motion will not be reversed unless that discretion was abused. Oseman v. State, 32 Wis.2d 523, 528, 145 N.W.2d 766 (1966). We do not believe the granting of a mistrial was required. It appears that the offending material was read but once to the jury, by one of its members, and was not circulated among them or dwelt upon at length. While charges of sexual misconduct with a child might reflect badly on the defendant in the minds of the jury, the charges are dissimilar to the offense for which defendant was then being tried; and, as the state points out in its brief, the defendant had testified to having nine prior criminal convictions, so the jury already knew that his record was not free of blemishes. As for the references to defendant's mental history, defense counsel's statement indicates only that such references were contained in the documents read by the jury, without elaborating at all on what the references were. We assume that the reference was to defendant's 1962 commitment to Central State Hospital because no other matters of this nature appear anywhere in the record. Knowledge of a period of confinement in a mental hospital was not in itself so prejudicial as to require that a mistrial be declared, and this court cannot assume that more specific information of a prejudicial nature was involved. [13] Balanced against the possible prejudicial nature of the documents, the steps taken by the trial court to mitigate any prejudice must be considered. The trial court individually voir dired the jurors and instructed them collectively to disregard the fugitive materials and to deliberate only upon the evidence properly received. In view of the limited knowledge we have as to the nature of the offending documents, and considering also the fact that evidence of the defendant's guilt was very strong, we cannot say that under the circumstances the trial court abused its discretion when the motion for a mistrial was denied. [9]