Opinion ID: 1652528
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Standard of Review Applicable to Juror-Misconduct Claims

Text: In addressing the Court of Criminal Appeals' ruling on Dobyne's juror-misconduct claim on the merits, we must note that that court employed the wrong standard when it stated: To determine whether a defendant was prejudiced by a juror's failure to respond truthfully to a question during voir dire examination, the test is whether the defendant actually was prejudiced. Knight v. State, 710 So.2d 511 (Ala.Cr.App.1997). See Dawson v. State, 710 So.2d 472 (Ala.1997). Dobyne, 805 So.2d at 759. Although the Court of Criminal Appeals correctly held that, based on the evidence presented at the Rule 32 hearing, Dobyne is not entitled to relief from his conviction or his sentence, the standard the Court of Criminal Appeals applied in reaching its conclusion that this Court, in Dawson, had changed the law relating to the standard of proof required to prove a juror-misconduct claim, is not correct. In Dawson, this Court applied the same standard that was advanced in Roan v. State, 225 Ala. 428, 143 So. 454 (1932), namely, that in determining whether a new trial or a reversal is warranted because of juror misconduct (in this present case a juror's alleged failure to respond truthfully to a question during voir dire) the test is whether the defendant might have been prejudiced, not whether he actually was prejudiced, by such misconduct. See Roan, 225 Ala. at 435, 143 So. at 459. (The test of vitiating influence is not that it did influence a member of the jury to act without the evidence, but that it might have unlawfully influenced ... [the] verdict rendered. (Emphasis added.)); and Dawson, 710 So.2d 472, 476 (Ala.1997) (Because Dawson failed to show that the juror's viewing of the crime scene resulted in the introduction of facts that might have unlawfully influenced the jury's verdict, a new trial is not warranted. (Emphasis added.)). In fact, in Dawson this Court looked to Reed v. State, 547 So.2d 596 (Ala.1989), in resolving the issue presented. Both Dawson and Reed applied the might-have-been-prejudiced standard, rather than the actual-prejudice standard. The proper standard for determining whether juror misconduct warrants a new trial, as set out by this Court's precedent, is whether the misconduct might have prejudiced, not whether it actually did prejudice, the defendant. See Ex parte Stewart, 659 So.2d 122 (Ala.1993); Campbell v. Williams, 638 So.2d 804 (Ala. 1994); Union Mortgage Co. v. Barlow, 595 So.2d 1335 (Ala.1992), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 906, 113 S.Ct. 301, 121 L.Ed.2d 224 (1992). The might-have-been-prejudiced standard, of course, casts a lighter burden on the defendant than the actual-prejudice standard. See Tomlin v. State, supra, 695 So.2d at 170. For a more recent detailed discussion of the burden of proof required to make a showing under the might-have-been-prejudiced standard, see Ex parte Apicella, [Ms. 1992273, March 30, 2001] ___ So.2d ___ at ___ (Ala.2001) (It is clear, then, that the question whether the jury's decision might have been affected is answered not by a bare showing of juror misconduct, but rather by an examination of the circumstances particular to the case. (Emphasis original.)). It is true that the parties in a case are entitled to true and honest answers to their questions on voir dire, so that they may exercise their peremptory strikes wisely. See Fabianke v. Weaver, 527 So.2d 1253 (Ala.1988). However, not every failure to respond properly to questions propounded during voir dire automatically entitles [the defendant] to a new trial or reversal of the cause on appeal. Freeman v. Hall, 286 Ala. 161, 166, 238 So.2d 330, 335 (1970); see also Dawson v. State, supra, at 474; and Reed v. State, supra . As stated previously, the proper standard to apply in determining whether a party is entitled to a new trial in this circumstance is whether the defendant might have been prejudiced by a venire-member's failure to make a proper response. Ex parte Stewart, 659 So.2d at 124. Further, the determination of whether a party might have been prejudiced, i.e., whether there was probable prejudice, is a matter within the trial court's discretion. [1] Eaton v. Horton, 565 So.2d 183 (Ala.1990); Land & Assocs., Inc. v. Simmons, 562 So.2d 140 (Ala.1989) (Houston, J., concurring specially). The determination of whether the complaining party was prejudiced by a juror's failure to answer voir dire questions is a matter within the discretion of the trial court and will not be reversed unless the court has abused its discretion. Some of the factors that this Court has approved for using to determine whether there was probable prejudice include: `temporal remoteness of the matter inquired about, the ambiguity of the question propounded, the prospective juror's inadvertence or willfulness in falsifying or failing to answer, the failure of the juror to recollect, and the materiality of the matter inquired about.' Union Mortgage Co. v. Barlow, 595 So.2d at 1342-43 (quoting Freeman v. Hall, supra (other citations omitted)). The trial court, in its order denying Dobyne's Rule 32 petition, extensively addressed these factors in determining that juror M.A.M.'s failure to respond did not present a situation that might have been prejudicial to Dobyne. While Dobyne presented an affidavit of a juror, G.S., that stated that M.A.M. had improperly influenced the jury to consider her knowledge of mental retardation, rather than the evidence presented at trial, we have stated in other contexts that [we] grant great deference to the trial judge, who is on the scene and who can best judge the credibility of the participants and determine what actually occurred. Ex parte Pressley, 770 So.2d 143, 147 (Ala.2000). The form of prejudice that would entitle a party to relief for a juror's nondisclosure or falsification in voir dire would be its effect, if any, to cause the party to forgo challenging the juror for cause or exercising a peremptory challenge to strike the juror. Ex parte Ledbetter, 404 So.2d 731 (Ala.1981); Warrick v. State, 460 So.2d 320 (Ala.Crim.App. 1984); and Leach v. State, 31 Ala.App. 390, 18 So.2d 285 (1944). If the party establishes that the juror's disclosure of the truth would have caused the party either to (successfully) challenge the juror for cause or to exercise a peremptory challenge to strike the juror, then the party has made a prima facie showing of prejudice. Id. Such prejudice can be established by the obvious tendency of the true facts to bias the juror, as in Ledbetter, supra, or by direct testimony of trial counsel that the true facts would have prompted a challenge against the juror, as in State v. Freeman, 605 So.2d 1258 (Ala. Crim.App.1992). Dobyne is not entitled to relief on this juror-misconduct claim because he neither proffered nor introduced evidence that a true answer by M.A.M. would have caused him to challenge M.A.M. for cause or to exercise a peremptory challenge against her. The closest to direct evidence to such effect proffered or introduced in the trial court in support of this Rule 32 claim was this testimony by one of Dobyne's trial lawyers: Q. You testified before about the foreperson of the jury, [M.A.M]. At the time of the trial, what did you know about [M.A.M.'s] relationship, if any, with Willie Dobyne? A. I was not aware of any relationship that she had with Willie at the time of the trial. Q. Did you know thatat that time, did you know that when she was involved in the schools when Willie was in school, that she had been involved in making a determination that Willie's mental retardation or low intelligence had nothing to do with some misbehavior that he had engaged in? A. No, I was not aware of that. Q. If you had known that, is it possible that that would have had any effect on your thinking about her as a desirable juror? A. Yes, sure, it's possible. (R. 1429-30.) An inference on an inference, forbidden by law, Malone Freight Lines, Inc. v. McCardle, 277 Ala. 100, 167 So.2d 274 (1964), would be necessary to conclude from the answer Yes, sure, it's possible, that the defense would have challenged M.A.M. (even successfully) for cause or would have exercised a peremptory challenge against her had she revealed the information. The first inference needed by the defendant would be that the effect on [his lawyer's] thinking about her as a desirable juror would have been negative rather than positive, for trial counsel's other testimony reveals that they affirmatively thought M.A.M.'s training and experience made her a desirable juror. The second inference, to be impermissibly inferred from the first inference, would be that the negative effect on the lawyer's thinking would have been strong enough to overcome his, and cocounsel's, favorable impression of M.A.M. as a juror and to impel them to challenge her for cause or to exercise a peremptory strike to remove her from the venire. Thus, this testimony fails to establish the requisite prejudice. In the Rule 32 proceedings, Dobyne also had introduced evidence that, over a span of years more than a decade before the trial, M.A.M., in her capacity as special education coordinator for the Bibb County school system, which included the schools Dobyne then attended, had participated in certain evaluations of his intelligence and behavior. If M.A.M. had recalled and disclosed this information during voir dire, we would note that, even so, the nature of the information, together with the information the defense already knew at that time, does not, in and of itself, tend to establish that it would have caused the defense to challenge M.A.M. to remove her, or to peremptorily strike her, from the venire. Dobyne argues that the trial court erroneously deprived him of an opportunity to call witnesses to impeach M.A.M.'s live Rule 32 testimony to the effect that she did not recognize or recall Dobyne during the voir dire. In the Rule 32 proceedings, the trial court allowed the state to present M.A.M.'s testimony live. At the same hearing, Dobyne introduced the affidavits of several witnesses whose testimony does tend to impeach M.A.M. by tending to prove that M.A.M. must have recognized and recalled Dobyne during the voir dire when she failed to respond to the question Is there anyone who knows the defendant, Willie Dobyne. Such impeachment tends to establish that a truthful answer by M.A.M. at voir dire would have revealed M.A.M.'s previous professional acquaintance and work with Dobyne. Absent any proffer of evidence indicating that such a revelation at voir dire would have caused the defense to challenge M.A.M., or to strike her, as already discussed, however, the trial judge's hearing live testimony from the impeaching affiants would have served no purpose. Therefore, the Court of Criminal Appeals did not err in rejecting the juror-misconduct claim.