Opinion ID: 469447
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: failure to segregate jurors for questioning regarding

Text: EFFECT OF PRETRIAL PUBLICITY 47 After the jury had been impaneled, the trial court was informed that the jury had been exposed to adverse pretrial publicity regarding Reiger. Over defense counsel's objection, the trial court examined each juror individually in open court in the presence of the other jurors. State v. Reiger, 64 Hawaii at 513, 644 P.2d at 963. The trial court's questioning of the first juror, Mrs. Kamodo, elicited from her the following summary of what she had heard: 48 The first part was about James Benton's bail and then Mr. Reiger's bail and the amount and the discrepancy and it was the name and also Mr. Reiger's possible connection with the underworld. 49 Id. The court excused Mrs. Kamodo after determining that she could not function as a fair juror. Id. Of the remaining jurors, only two responded that they had inadvertently read such an article in the newspaper; both, however, stated that they could give Reiger a fair trial. 64 Hawaii at 514, 644 P.2d at 963. Reiger's counsel was given the opportunity to ask additional questions of these jurors but did not do so. Id. The Hawaii Supreme Court found that [a]lthough it would have been better practice to have examined the individual jurors ... out of the presence of the other jurors, Reiger was not prejudiced by the procedure employed. Id. The district court agreed. 50 Reiger argues that the trial court's failure to segregate the affected jurors for questioning necessarily deprived him of his right to a fair and impartial trial. We disagree. When prejudicial matter is brought to the jury's attention during the course of a trial, the court should [make] a careful, individual examination of each of the jurors involved, out of the presence of the remaining jurors, as to the possible effect of the articles. Silverthorne v. United States, 400 F.2d 627, 639 (9th Cir.1968) (quoting Coppedge v. United States, 272 F.2d 504, 508 (D.C.Cir.1959), cert. denied, 368 U.S. 855, 82 S.Ct. 92, 7 L.Ed.2d 52 (1961)); accord, United States v. Giese, 597 F.2d 1170, 1183 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 979, 100 S.Ct. 480, 62 L.Ed.2d 405 (1979). The question in the instant case, however, is whether individual voir dire outside the presence of the other jurors is constitutionally required. 51 The Constitution does not require an individual voir dire of all jurors exposed to potentially prejudicial publicity. See Ristaino v. Ross, 424 U.S. 589, 594, 96 S.Ct. 1017, 1020, 47 L.Ed.2d 258 (1976) (The Constitution does not always entitle a defendant to have questions posed during voir dire specifically directed to matters that conceivably might prejudice veniremen against him.). Our direction to trial courts that jurors who have been exposed to potentially prejudicial publicity during the course of trial should be subjected to a careful, individual examination out of the presence of the remaining jurors, see Silverthorne, 400 F.2d at 639, is necessarily based upon our supervisory power to  'formulate and apply proper standards for the enforcement of the criminal law in the federal courts,' and [was not] a matter of constitutional compulsion. See Murphy v. Florida, 421 U.S. 794, 797, 95 S.Ct. 2031, 2034, 44 L.Ed.2d 589 (1975) (quoting Marshall v. United States, 360 U.S. 310, 313, 79 S.Ct. 1171, 1173, 3 L.Ed.2d 1250 (1959)); Jackson v. Amaral, 729 F.2d 41, 45 (1st Cir.1984). We may reverse Reiger's conviction only if there is reason to believe that the procedure employed by the trial court involves such a probability that prejudice will result that it is deemed inherently lacking in due process. Estes v. Texas, 381 U.S. 532, 542-43, 85 S.Ct. 1628, 1632-33, 14 L.Ed.2d 543 (1965). 52 We are unable to ascertain from the record before us whether the trial court's failure to segregate the jurors for questioning violated Reiger's right to a fair and impartial trial. Individual voir dire is not constitutionally required in cases involving unsupported general allegations of prejudicial pretrial publicity or in cases where the publicity does not create a significant potential of prejudice. United States v. Colacurcio, 659 F.2d 684, 689 (5th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 1002, 102 S.Ct. 1635, 71 L.Ed.2d 869 (1982). Mrs. Kamodo's comments clearly transcend unsupported general allegations of prejudicial pretrial publicity, see id., and the fact that her observations were elicited in open court may have created a significant potential for prejudice. Compare Jackson v. Amaral, 729 F.2d at 45 (fact that judge's nonsegregated voir dire led one juror to publicly question her impartiality indicates that the voir dire was not wholly ineffective and suggests that any other juror who doubted his or her ability to render an impartial verdict would have felt comfortable in stepping forward); and Colacurcio, 659 F.2d at 689 (district court did not abuse its discretion by failing to conduct individual segregated voir dire of jurors who had been exposed to newspaper articles suggesting that defendant possessed strong underworld connections and was able to post bail in less than one-half hour) with Coppedge v. United States, 272 F.2d at 508 (jurors' exposure to adverse pretrial publicity deprived defendant of right to fair trial where jurors were questioned about such exposure in open court; had one juror described the contents of the publicity and stated that he would be influenced in his verdict, damage to defendant would have been spread to listening jurors). 53 Given Mrs. Kamodo's responses to the court's voir dire, the district court had the duty to make an independent examination of the state court transcripts to determine whether the jurors' assurances of impartiality were adequate to insure Reiger a fair trial. See Patton v. Yount, 467 U.S. 1025, 1031-34, 104 S.Ct. 2885, 2888-90, 81 L.Ed.2d 847 (1984); Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U.S. 717, 723, 81 S.Ct. 1639, 1642, 6 L.Ed.2d 751 (1961); Bashor v. Risley, 730 F.2d 1228, 1234 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 137, 83 L.Ed.2d 77 (1984). Because the district court did not obtain the state court transcripts, it was unable to perform such an independent evaluation. Therefore, we remand to the district court for consideration of Reiger's claim that his right to a fair trial was violated by the district court's failure to conduct an individual voir dire of each juror out of the presence of the others. 7