Opinion ID: 75566
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Emotional Outbursts

Text: Finally, Neal argues that the district court abused its discretion in not granting him a new trial because the jury was tainted by emotional outbursts from Griffin and another witness. The first incident occurred before voir dire of the jury when Griffin became very emotional and upset and left the court room crying out loud. She walked through the lobby where the jury panel was waiting and then into the bathroom. Many prospective jurors witnessed the incident. Although Neal argues on appeal that the district court erred in not granting him a new trial based on Griffin’s emotional outburst, it appears that Neal neither requested a mistrial at the time of the incident; 11 nor did he move to strike the jury panel. In any event, we find no abuse of discretion in the district court’s decision not to strike the panel.3 The court questioned each of the prospective jurors about what they had witnessed and what effect it might have on their partiality. Each juror ultimately selected to serve on the jury stated that he or she could ignore the incident and decide the case based on the evidence. The second incident upon which Neal bases his appeal occurred during the testimony of Joanne Jeffery, a Florida City employee, who testified that Neal had harassed her on daily basis while he was an employee of Florida City. Jeffery’s testimony was almost immediately interrupted when she broke down crying on the witness stand. The court promptly ordered a recess, and both Neal and the City moved for a mistrial. Although the court initially expressed serious concern about the emotional nature of the testimony, it ultimately declined to grant a mistrial. The court then instructed the jury to disregard the witness’ crying, and each of the jurors indicated that they were able to do so. One week later, the court struck Jeffery’s testimony “in toto” and instructed the jury that it was to completely disregard it. Although Neal contends that Jeffery’s emotional outburst on the witness stand was so severe and disruptive that he was denied his right to a fair and impartial jury, we have held that because the trial judge is in the best position to assess the prejudicial 3 The City did request that the district court strike the panel, and the district court refused. 12 effect of an emotional outburst, the decision whether to grant a mistrial lies within his sound discretion. Messer, 760 F.2d at 1087(affirming trial judge’s refusal to grant mistrial after murder victim’s father began screaming at and lunged toward the defendant during defendant’s testimony). The district court gave curative instructions and ultimately struck the testimony of the witness. Raulerson v. Wainwright, 753 F.2d 869, 876 (11th Cir. 1985)(stating that we presume that juries follow the court’s instructions). As such, we find no abuse of discretion.