Opinion ID: 551535
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: substitution of alternate for juror

Text: 52 All parties rested at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, December 14, 1987. The district judge scheduled the charge conference for the following morning and excused the jurors until Wednesday morning, December 16. Throughout Wednesday the jury heard closing arguments. At the end of the day the judge instructed the jurors to return to the courtroom the next morning, at which point he would instruct them and they could begin their deliberation. On Thursday morning, before the jury entered the courtroom, a juror sent the judge a note which read: 53 Your Honor: According to you, last week you said that we were going to finish at the beginning of the week, early in the week. I changed my plane reservation for today because I thought Wednesday was going to be our last day. Now, if I don't leave today, I won't have reservations to leave to Santo Domingo. My family is gone, and they are waiting for me. Please tell me if we are finishing today. 54 Record, Vol. 32 at 3676. The judge called the juror into court to discuss the matter, along with counsel for the government and the defense. The juror informed the court that she had reservations to leave at 5:30 that afternoon to join her family in Santo Domingo for the Christmas holiday. The juror expressed concern that if she did not leave on this flight she would be unable to arrange another flight during the holiday season. The judge explained to the juror that he could not assure her that the jury would finish deliberating by any particular time and asked her if she could continue as a juror. The juror responded, No problem and then added, Well, no problem, I guess. At a sidebar conference one of the counsel for the defendants noted that the juror was obviously very upset, judging from her tone of voice and her facial expression. 55 The judge returned the juror to the jury room and declared a brief recess during which a defense counsel attempted to arrange alternative flight arrangements for the juror through his travel agency. In the meanwhile the juror informed the court through the marshal that her travel agent had told her that her flight was scheduled to leave at 12:15 p.m. that day, rather than 5:30 p.m. The judge stated:Well, that makes it even worse. I think we're going to have to be realistic and recognize that we have an unhappy juror there who has plans that have already been made in advance, that to change those plans from the nature and demeanor that she exhibited here in court can very likely affect everybody in the case, not just the Government but all the defendants as well. I think we ought to face up to it and excuse her and put the first alternate in her place. 56 The government moved to excuse the juror, and counsel for one of the defendants objected, arguing that the juror should be given the choice of deliberating or not. The court then announced its decision: 57 [Defense counsel,] we still come back to the same thing. Assuming you get her a reservation for Saturday or Friday, that still may not answer the problem if the jury hasn't completed its deliberations. We would then be faced with quite a problem of whether are we going to keep a really disgruntled juror on that jury, and we certainly can't substitute someone from amongst the alternates at that point in time. It's almost impossible to instruct the jury to go back to square one all over again with one of the alternates in there. 58 I regretfully am going to grant the Government's motion. I'm going to substitute the first alternate. I think that the entire fate of the trial could hang in balance, and it would affect inequitably the Government as well as all the defendants. It just doesn't cut one way. It cuts all the way around here, so that's what I'm going to do. 59 After excusing this juror the judge then denied defendants' motions for a mistrial, brought the jury into court, designated the first alternate as a regular juror, and charged the jury. 60 Defendants Hicks, Samuel Smith and A.J. Smith contend that the district court's decision was reversible error. When facts arise before the start of deliberations that cast doubt on a juror's ability to perform her duties, the district court bears discretion to excuse the juror and replace her with an alternate. Fed.R.Crim.P. 24(c); U.S. v. Fajardo, 787 F.2d 1523, 1525 (11th Cir.1986); U.S. v. Sobamowo, 892 F.2d 90, 95 (D.C.Cir.1989), cert. denied, Adair v. U.S., --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 78, 112 L.Ed.2d 51, and Toomer v. U.S., --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 78, 112 L.Ed.2d 51 (1990). We review the exercise of this discretion to ensure that the district court did not discharge the juror without factual support, or for a legally irrelevant reason. Fajardo, 787 F.2d at 1525 (quoting U.S. v. Rodriguez, 573 F.2d 330, 332 (5th Cir.1978)). In this case the district court acted within its discretion in excusing the juror because of its concern over the potential disruptive effect she could have on the jury during deliberations. The decision to excuse a juror who may disrupt deliberations also is entrusted to the sound discretion of the trial court. Id. at 1526. The district judge personally examined the juror and was in a superior position to determine her state of mind and ability to comport herself. He was convinced that she would be unable to deliberate effectively because of her concern over spending Christmas vacation with her family. It is significant that the district judge also found that her distraction would disrupt the efforts of the jury as a whole to evaluate the evidence and reach a verdict. See id. (the degree of disruption is gauged better by first-hand impressions rather than the review of a cold record). The record reflects that the juror was evidently upset, and the district judge made his decision only after discussing the matter with her and with counsel for government and the defendants. There is no evidence of bias toward any party on the part of the judge. There was no abuse of discretion. Cf. U.S. v. Shelton, 669 F.2d 446, 460 (7th Cir.) (no abuse of discretion to excuse impatient and disgruntled juror because of concerns of disruptive effect on other jurors in long trial), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 934, 102 S.Ct. 1989, 72 L.Ed.2d 454 (1982) (cited in Fajardo, 787 F.2d at 1526); U.S. v. Brown, 571 F.2d 980, 984-85 (6th Cir.1978) (no abuse of discretion to excuse juror who was upset and anxious over marital relations); U.S. v. Hoffa, 367 F.2d 698, 712 (7th Cir.1966) (no abuse of discretion to excuse juror whose mother had become seriously ill), vacated on other grounds, 387 U.S. 231, 87 S.Ct. 1583, 18 L.Ed.2d 738 (1967).