Opinion ID: 1893188
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Newspaper publicity during trial.

Text: Bonner asserts that the newspaper article prejudiced him because it associated him with Robert Jenkins, i.e., that Jenkins used the same address as Bonner and that Jenkins was convicted and is serving time in the State Penitentiary. In State v. Olson, 274 N.W.2d 190 (N.D. 1978), newspaper articles were published on the eighth day of trial which attributed some very critical testimony that had been presented at the defendant's preliminary hearing as having been received at trial when in fact, at that point in the trial, it had not. Upon the defendant's motion for a mistrial, the trial court examined the jurors and discovered that four of them had read the articles. The court then questioned the four jurors who indicated that the articles they had read had not influenced their capacity to determine, as fair and impartial jurors, the guilt or innocence of the defendant solely upon the evidence produced in court. In upholding the trial court's determination in Olson that a mistrial was not necessary to assure a fair trial, we found very significant the fact that the preliminary hearing testimony contained in the newspaper articles was subsequently introduced at trial through the testimony of witnesses. In the absence of contrary evidence, a presumption exists that a jury performed its duties in accordance with the law and was not influenced by outside events or evidence. State v. Ohnstad, 359 N.W.2d 827, 842 (N.D.1984); State v. Voeller, supra, at 121; State v. Olson, supra, at 193. In this case, not only did the jurors indicate that they had not read the newspaper article, but the material contained in the article was introduced at trial by the testimony of witnesses. We conclude that Bonner has failed to show how he was prejudiced by the newspaper article.