Opinion ID: 743614
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Defendants' motion for voir dire of the jury

Text: 57 We likewise disagree with Defendants' contention that the trial judge erred in refusing to conduct an individual voir dire of the jurors to determine the potential prejudicial impact of the transcripts. Trial judges are vested with wide latitude with respect to remedying the potential prejudicial influence that may arise when jurors are exposed to improper information, and the district court's decision not to conduct a voir dire will only be reversed for an abuse of discretion. Sababu, 891 F.2d at 1334; see United States v. Carson, 9 F.3d 576, 589 (7th Cir.1993). 58 When refusing to conduct a voir dire of the jury, the experienced trial judge noted that the defendants had failed to delineate any specific examples of prejudicial material in those transcripts. This was particularly noteworthy since defense counsel had an opportunity at the time the tapes and transcripts were admitted to argue that they contained irrelevant or prejudicial information, and were specifically told four days prior to the start of closing arguments to inspect the exhibits that were being sent back to the jury. Furthermore, the trial judge observed that conducting a voir dire of the jury during deliberations can be fraught with problems, since it could cause the jurors to focus disproportionately on the removed material. This court has noted its agreement with this observation in the past. In Sababu, we observed that such a voir dire could conceivably jeopardize an accused's rights, because it is possible that polling jurors individually could cause  'the jurors polled to attach undue significance to the incident.'  891 F.2d at 1334 (quoting United States v. Williams, 822 F.2d 1174, 1189-90 (D.C.Cir.1987)). As in Sababu, in this case we conclude that the trial court did not commit error in refusing to conduct a voir dire and deciding instead to give a curative limiting instruction. 59