Opinion ID: 537726
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Bribe Attempt

Text: 73 There can be little dispute that the juror who was offered the bribe would be presumed, under Remmer, to have been prejudiced. This juror, however, was immediately dismissed, and thus our inquiry turns to the four other jurors who learned of the incident. Of these four jurors, two learned of the bribe offer from glimpses of newspaper headlines; the third learned of it from one of the first two, and the fourth overheard two strangers talking, apparently, about the same newspaper coverage. Directly or indirectly, therefore, all four jurors learned of the incident because of the news coverage. Consequently, the most appropriate standard for us to apply in considering this incident is the standard we have articulated in cases where jurors were exposed to potentially prejudicial publicity during the course of trial. 74 In United States v. Porcaro, 648 F.2d 753 (1st Cir.1981), we set forth a three-prong standard for courts to apply to determine whether publicity during the course of a trial has prejudiced the jury. First, a court should determine whether the news coverage is prejudicial. Second, if it is, the court should determine whether any jurors were exposed to the coverage. Third, if exposure did occur, the court should examine the exposed jurors to determine if this exposure compromised their impartiality. See id. at 757; see also United States v. Gaggi, 811 F.2d 47, 51 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 482 U.S. 929, 107 S.Ct. 3214, 96 L.Ed.2d 701 (1987). As with ex parte contacts, a trial court's finding of continued jury impartiality despite exposure to news coverage should be upheld absent abuse of discretion. See Gaggi, 811 F.2d at 51. 75 Applying this standard, we reject defendants' challenges to the four jurors. Although there can be no dispute that the jurors were exposed to the news coverage (prong two of the standard), the defendants cannot succeed on the other two prongs of the test. First, we have substantial reservations about whether the minimal news coverage to which the jurors were exposed can truly be deemed prejudicial. The jurors were exposed, directly or indirectly, to no more than a brief newspaper headline reporting that a juror had been approached. They were not exposed to any substantive information about issues at trial or about the defendants' guilt with respect to the charges against them. See id. at 52. The coverage also was factually oriented rather than sensational in nature. See Porcaro, 648 F.2d at 758. 76 Furthermore, with respect to the third prong of the standard, we note that the trial court individually questioned each of the four jurors about their continued impartiality and accepted their assurances of impartiality as credible. In light of the prompt action by the trial court, the nonsensational nature of the minimal amounts of coverage to which the jurors were exposed, and the jurors' avowals of continued impartiality, we find that the trial court's retention of the four challenged jurors on the jury was not error. See United States v. Chang An-Lo, 851 F.2d 547, 559 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 493, 102 L.Ed.2d 530 (1988); Gaggi, 811 F.2d at 51-53; see also United States v. Maceo, 873 F.2d 1, 6 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 110 S.Ct. 125, 107 L.Ed.2d 86 (1989).