Opinion ID: 1301452
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: denial of right to jury trial

Text: Appellant maintains that he was deprived of the right to a fair trial for the reason that one of the jurors was asleep during a portion of the trial. During the course of the trial, the State proposed to show to the jury a videotape of the scene of the killing, including the removal of the victim from the scene. Appellant objected to this because the audio portion of the tape contained remarks of the sheriff, which appellant claimed to be prejudicial and inflammatory, and because the video picture, without the audio, was repetitious  having been previously shown to the jury by still photographs. Appellant also claimed that the picture of the removal of the body was prejudicial and inflammatory. The trial court deleted the audio portion of the tape, and the State proceeded to show the jury only the video. At the conclusion of the showing, the court made this remark: [T]his video must not have been too inflammatory or exciting. One of the jurors was asleep and 3 people [who] got up to watch it left. There is no evidence in the transcript of a sleeping juror other than this offhand remark of the trial judge; nor did appellant present authority or cogent argument in support of his objection. The record discloses only that appellant objected to the showing of the video because it was cumulative in that the entire scene had been photographed, that the jury had seen the entire scene, and that the video was just more pictures of the scene. As further objection, appellant claimed that the video photos of the removal of the body of the decedent from the scene were inflammatory because of rigor mortis and all that type of thing involved. There was no showing by appellant, other than the bare statement of the view being inflammatory, that the jurors who viewed the video were inflamed in what was otherwise a noninflammatory trial. It is difficult for us to find error in favor of appellant if a juror failed to see that which appellant asserts that he or she had already seen or that which he or she should not have seen. Was there prejudicial conduct from the standpoint of appellant? We believe not. Based upon appellant's objections to the showing of the video, it would seem that only the State could have been prejudiced if, in fact, a juror fell asleep. An analogous situation occurred in State v. Pace, 527 P.2d 658 (Utah 1974). The Supreme Court of Utah disposed of the matter thusly: Two onlookers said two of the jurors consciously went to sleep. The trial judge, not charged with somnambulism, in denying the motion for mistrial, said that he had observed the whole jury; that one had not gone to sleep, and the other did doze for a second, twice but had aroused before he, (the judge) had a chance to call it to her, (the juror's), attention. Hence there seems to have been nothing in the eyes of the beholder, nor in the arms of Morpheus reflecting that the juror could have been ensconced, so as to have stupefied the veniremen, or the sound discretion of the trial judge. Id. at 659 (emphasis in original). The court went on to say in a footnote to the above: It is interesting to note that at oral argument counsel for the defense, nor anyone else recognized the significance or sagacity  of one of the Justice's inquiries as to whether the slumber of the jurors occurred during the case in chief or during the defense's examination, the answer to which was that the Van Winkle incident was appurtenant to the State's presentation, no credit to the State or prejudice to defendant. Id. at 659 n. 2. This sagacity of the Utah appellate court seems to fit in our situation; i.e., no credit to the State or prejudice to defendant. Id. Finally, after the trial judge made the statement, the transcript shows no mistrial motion by appellant or even a request by appellant that the court remind the juror of his or her duties as a juror. It appears that the remark of the trial judge was simply a response to appellant's claim that the video was inflammatory  a hyperbole on the part of the trial judge.