Opinion ID: 514214
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Jury Exposure to Publicity During Trial

Text: 47 During the trial, the Tuesday June 23, 1987 editions of the New York Post published an article discussing the legal difficulties of Bess Myerson; accompanying the article was a series of photographs of seven men, including Scopo. Under Scopo's picture was the caption Ralph Scopo: former president of Cement and Concrete Workers' Union convicted in 'Commission Case,' now serving 100 years. The June 23 Post was seen by several of the jurors. Defendants contend that they are entitled to a new trial because the trial court inadequately explored the potential prejudicial effect of the jurors' exposure to the article. We disagree. 48 When jurors have been exposed to prejudicial publicity during trial, the trial court must determine whether the jurors retained the requisite impartiality. United States v. Gigante, 729 F.2d 78, 82 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1206, 104 S.Ct. 2390, 81 L.Ed.2d 348 (1984). We have approved a three-step process that may be followed by the trial judge to determine whether prejudicial publicity requires a mistrial: 49 The simple three-step process is, first, to determine whether the coverage has a potential for unfair prejudice, second, to canvass the jury to find out if they have learned of the potentially prejudicial publicity and, third, to examine individually exposed jurors--outside the presence of the other jurors--to ascertain how much they know of the distracting publicity and what effect, if any, it has had on that juror's ability to decide the case fairly. 50 United States v. Gaggi, 811 F.2d 47, 51 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 107 S.Ct. 3214, 96 L.Ed.2d 701 (1987). The trial court is accorded substantial discretion in making these determinations, and its conclusion that the jurors remained impartial will not be overturned on appeal absent an abuse of discretion. We find no abuse of discretion here. 51 The matter of the Post article was called to the court's attention by Scopo's stand-by counsel on Thursday June 25, there having been no trial session on June 24. The court promptly distributed to the jurors questionnaires asking whether they had read the Post since Monday of this week, and if so whether they had read anything about anyone connected with the present case. Seven jurors responded in the affirmative to at least one of the two questions; those jurors were questioned by the trial judge in open court, with the other jurors absent; each juror was admonished not to discuss the court's questions with the other jurors. 52 Of the jurors questioned, one, although he had not read anything about Scopo, had been told the substance of the caption by someone unconnected with the case. This juror doubted his continued ability to judge Scopo impartially, and he was dismissed from the jury. Five of the jurors stated that they had seen (or thought they had seen) the picture of Scopo and read the name Ralph Scopo but had not read the rest of the caption; each said that seeing Scopo's picture in the paper had not affected his or her ability to be a fair and impartial juror. The seventh juror (No. 7) stated that she had seen the pictures and recognized the names, but had flipped the page and didn't read anything. She stated that what she had seen would not affect her judgment concerning any defendant. 53 In addition to these seven jurors, the court questioned one juror (No. 4) who had answered both parts of the questionnaire in the negative. Juror No. 4 was questioned because one of the seven said she had seen Scopo's picture while looking over the shoulder of No. 4, who was holding the paper. Juror No. 4, when questioned by the court, admitted he had been mistaken about his negative response and stated that he had not read the Post on Tuesday. The court pointed out that it had not asked anything about Tuesday, and it renewed the question as to whether No. 4 had read the Post since Monday. No. 4 stated that because there had been no court session on Wednesday, he had lost track of what days the court's questions addressed; he stated that he had not read the Post earlier in the week and had not seen anything in the Post about anyone connected with this case. The court asked if he was sure; he responded that he was. 54 In this Court, defendants contend that the trial court should have pursued the questioning of juror No. 4 because of his reference to Tuesday and of juror No. 7 because her statement that she didn't read anything was inconsistent with her statement that she had seen the names under the pictures. As to No. 7, we disagree; though defendants promptly asked the trial court to question her further, evaluation of the juror's credibility was within the province of the court, and the court was entitled to accept the juror's statement that she had seen the pictures and the names but had not read the news story or any other part of the captions. As to No. 4, perhaps more questions could have been asked; but the court did not fail to cross-examine the answers given, and its further questioning elicited the responses that the juror had not read anything about anyone connected with the case. There is no indication in the record that defendants suggested any additional probing of juror No. 4, and we cannot say that the decision to credit the responses elicited was an abuse of the court's discretion. 55