Opinion ID: 1791345
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: whether the trial court erred in striking the affidavit of walter morrison, erred in failing to conduct a hearing concerning juror misconduct and further erred in failing to grant the appellant a new trial based upon the juror's misconduct.

Text: ¶ 5. Jurors are generally precluded from testifying to impeach their own verdict. See Miss. R. Evid. 606(b); Ratliff v. Nail, 231 So.2d 798 (Miss.1970); Index Drilling Co. v. Williams, 242 Miss. 775, 137 So.2d 525 (1962). However, 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. Miss. R. Evid. 606(b). When this exception applies, this Court has set forth the procedure to address allegations a jury has received extraneous information. According to Gladney v. Clarksdale Beverage Co., 625 So.2d 407 (Miss.1993), the first step in this procedure is for the counsel who first learns of possible improper extraneous jury influence to bring it to the attention of the trial court and opposing counsel as expeditiously as possible. Gladney, 625 So.2d at 418. The remaining steps are as follows: Once an allegation of juror misconduct arises, then the next step is to consider whether an investigation is warranted. In order for the duty to investigate to arise, the party contending there is misconduct must make an adequate showing to overcome the presumption in this state of jury impartiality. Juror polling shall only be permitted by an attorney, outside the supervision of the court, upon written request. At the very minimum, it must be shown that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that good cause exists to believe that there was in fact an improper outside influence or extraneous prejudicial information.... Although a minimal standard of good cause showing of specific instances of misconduct is acceptable, the preferable showing should clearly substantiate that a specific, non-speculative impropriety has occurred. The sufficiency of such evidence shall be determined by the trial court if a post-trial hearing is indeed warranted under these standards. Id. at 418-19. Gatewood asserts the facts in Walter Morrison's affidavit provide sufficient evidence to require an investigation into whether the jury was influenced by extraneous information. Morrison's affidavit reads in relevant part as follows: During this conversation, [dissenting juror] advised me that at least one of her fellow jurors had made an independent investigation during trial by going to Ellis Isle Exxon one night after Court was recessed for the day. [Dissenting juror] advised that this juror learned during her investigation that the telephones at the Ellis Isle Exxon had been moved after this incident and that Mr. Gatewood had proved his guilt with such actions. Sampson counters by claiming a juror's sworn testimony is necessary, through affidavit or on the witness stand, to amount to sufficient evidence of misconduct. He also claims Morrison's affidavit is inadmissible hearsay. Finally, Sampson states that the testimony of two witnesses and enlarged photographs admitted as evidence at trial had already put the jury on notice that the phones were no longer in the position they occupied the morning Sampson was shot. The trial court's ruling on Gatewood's motion is as follows: The court finds that Plaintiff's motion to strike Defendant's exhibits to their motion [Morrison's affidavit] is well taken and should be granted. Finally, with regard to the Defendant's allegations of juror misconduct, the Court finds that the Defendant has failed to make the required showing of juror misconduct sufficient to justify an investigation of the alleged matters. Moreover, the court will not allow unsubstantiated allegations by one a[sic] member of the jury against another, to serve as the bases for an investigation of alleged juror misconduct. The court finds that the complaining juror, when polled, was the only juror who disagreed with the jury's verdict and the allegation of misconduct was only raised by the losing Defendant's [sic] after contacting and interrogating the juror about the verdict. The court will not permit a challenge of the verdict of the jury under such circumstances. ¶ 6. Morrison's affidavit is the only evidence of outside influence Gatewood provided to the trial court. The dissenting juror neither signed an affidavit nor gave testimony on the witness stand in the present case. The information was provided to the Court and opposing counsel approximately nineteen days after Morrison became aware of the possible outside influence, but within the ten days after entry of judgment. This affidavit does not mention the day the juror went to the scene; the names or number of jurors who viewed the Ellis Island Exxon; whether the investigating juror was a member of the jury panel or an alternate; whether the dissenting juror heard the results of the investigation in the jury room or outside the court; or whether the information discovered in the independent investigation was made known to the entire jury panel during deliberations. However, the affidavit does indicate that at least one juror possibly went to the scene of the incident and reported her findings back to at least one other member of the jury panel and, in the opinion of the dissenting juror, the investigating juror considered this evidence significant concerning Gatewood's liability. ¶ 7. While this might give rise to questions concerning improper outside influence, the information in the affidavit is twice removed from the original declarant. It would be unwise to find such statements excepted from the rules governing hearsay through means of the catch all exceptions cited by Gatewood because the information the attorney received and passed along in his affidavit could easily be false. See Miss. R. Evid. 803(24), 804(5). The manner in which this information was brought to the court and the fact the dissenting juror was unwilling to sign an affidavit cast greater doubt upon its authenticity and veracity. ¶ 8. Furthermore, the record indicates the jury could have been aware the phones had been moved without conducting an improper investigation. Two witnesses, Sampson and his security expert, made reference to the phones' location in the past tense. No objection was made to this testimony. This would indicate to anyone listening closely that the phones were no longer in the same location they occupied when the attack occurred. Sampson also submits the enlarged pictures of the Ellis Isle Exxon made after the phones were moved and admitted into evidence without objection show the phones had been moved. Sampson's testimony also indicates he demonstrated on the pictures to the jury where the phones were located the morning of his attack. ¶ 9. In light of the above, we find the affidavit submitted to the trial judge in support of Gatewood's claim of juror misconduct does not rise to the necessary level of proof required to conduct an investigation. The jury could easily have been aware of the fact the phones had been moved from the position they occupied the night of the attack. This evidence, while possibly demonstrating subsequent remedial measures taken by Gatewood, is beyond review as no objection was made to preserve the issue. See Miss. R. Evid. 103(a)(1); 407. ¶ 10. A circuit court's decision to deny a motion for a new trial due to outside juror influence is reviewed for abuse of discretion. Gladney, 625 So.2d at 415; Salter v. Watkins, 513 So.2d 569, 571 (Miss.1987); Davis v. Singing River Elec. Power Ass'n, 501 So.2d 1128, 1129 (Miss. 1987). Since it was not error to deny the request to investigate the juror misconduct, neither was it an abuse of discretion to deny the motion for a new trial and strike the affidavit of Walter Morrison alleging the outside influence.