Opinion ID: 77655
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Motion to Interview Juror Whitehead

Text: 31 After the verdict was read, the court clerk polled the jury as to whether they concurred in the verdict. During the polling, Witherspoon engaged in a disruptive outburst causing the court to suspend polling midway through the process. After the polling was completed and the jury dismissed, Witherspoon's counsel made a motion to interview Juror Whitehead, noting that Whitehead had hesitated before affirming his concurrence in the verdict. The district court denied this motion as well as a subsequent motion for a mistrial, stating that although Whitehead did hesitate for a few seconds, he eventually said `Yes.' The court explained that My guess is the reason that he hesitated was because it was an emotional experience to hear all that screaming going on in the courtroom from what I assume were relatives of the defendants. So had we gone sidebar I wouldn't have inquired any more of Juror [Whitehead]. 32 Approximately three months later, Witherspoon filed a written motion to interview Juror Whitehead, which Polynice later adopted, based on Whitehead's hesitant affirmation of the verdict and the fact that the jury's original verdict form reflected a not guilty verdict for Witherspoon on the firearm counts. In his written motion, Witherspoon referenced codefendant Polynice's allegation of extrinsic contact with Juror Cetoute and argued that this extrinsic contact coupled with Whitehead's hesitation trigger[ed] the need for an investigation through juror interview. In a written order, the district court denied Witherspoon's motion. The court stated that after reviewing the audiotape of the proceedings, it determined that there was a time-gap of at least 1.5 and not more than 3 seconds between the clerk asking Juror Whitehead to affirm his verdict and Whitehead's response. The court also noted that Witherspoon's outburst began even before the clerk had polled Juror # 1 (Whitehead was Juror # 3). The court held that a juror who allegedly violated the court's admonition by talking about the case to a non-juror at McDonald's during an evening recess . . . and a juror who pauses less than three seconds before affirming his verdict during a poll, do not individually nor cumulatively merit granting Witherspoon's motion to interview Juror Whitehead. In a subsequent order, the court denied Polynice's adopted motion for the same reasons it denied Witherspoon's motion. 33 In our view, Witherspoon and Polynice's allegation of juror impropriety is weaker than the allegations in the cases discussed above. See Hooshmand, 931 F.2d at 737; Cuthel, 903 F.2d at 1382; O'Rear, 554 F.2d at 1309-10. Given that Whitehead's hesitation was, at most, three seconds and was plausibly attributable to Witherspoon's emotional outbursts, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motions to interview Juror Whitehead.