Opinion ID: 1188889
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Reading the indictment to the jury

Text: Defendant alleges that the trial court erred in having the clerk read the indictment to the jury at the beginning of the trial. The indictment in this case contained the following language: The grand jurors of Maricopa County, Arizona, accuse Joe D. Cornell on this 15th day of December 1989, charging that in Maricopa County, Arizona.... Defendant argues that telling jurors another group of citizens has already determined that there is evidence to believe he is guilty tends to make the jurors less vigilant than they should be; therefore, his rights to due process and to an impartial jury under the United States and Arizona Constitutions were violated. We cannot agree. Because Defendant failed to object to the reading of the indictment, he is precluded from arguing the issue now, absent fundamental error. Ariz.R.Evid. 103(a) and (d); State v. Bible, 175 Ariz. 549, 572, 858 P.2d 1152, 1175 (1993). It was not error, fundamental or otherwise, to read the indictment to the jury. Ariz.R.Crim.P. 19.1(a)(1), requires the clerk to read the indictment. Moreover, this court rejected a similar claim in State v. Amaya-Ruiz, 166 Ariz. 152, 174, 800 P.2d 1260, 1282 (1990), cert. denied, 500 U.S. 929, 111 S.Ct. 2044, 114 L.Ed.2d 129 (1991). In that case, the defendant argued that use of the words true bill and the grand jury foreperson's signature were prejudicial surplusage. This court affirmed the conviction, relying in part on United States v. Ramirez, 710 F.2d 535 (9th Cir.1983). In Ramirez, as in the present case, the defendant complained about the jury hearing the phrase the grand jury charges. Id. at 545. The Ramirez court rejected this argument because the trial court had instructed the jury that the indictment was not evidence against the accused and raised no inference of guilt or innocence. Here, similar instructions were given. We think this instruction sufficient to avoid any prejudice. Given the instruction, the reading of the indictment certainly did not violate Defendant's due process rights.