Opinion ID: 77655
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Post-Trial Requests to Interview Jurors

Text: 26 Polynice and Witherspoon challenge the district court's denial of their motions to interview certain jurors following the verdict. We review a district court's refusal to permit juror interviews for abuse of discretion. United States v. Hooshmand, 931 F.2d 725, 737 (11th Cir. 1991). 27 Under Southern District of Florida Local Rule 11.1E, after the jury is discharged, upon application in writing, the district court may allow counsel to interview jurors to determine if the verdict is subject to legal challenge. S.D. Fla. R. 11.1E. In Hooshmand, this court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion when, under the predecessor of S.D. Fla. R. 11.1E, it refused to permit defense counsel to interview a juror who had told the district court I voted for [the verdict], but it was not my verdict .... I had no choice. It was 11 to 1. It had to be unanimous .... They wanted to get on with other trials. Hooshmand, 931 F.2d at 737. In United States v. Cuthel, 903 F.2d 1381, 1382 (11th Cir.1990), this court upheld a district court's authority, under the same local rule, to deny defense counsel's request to interview jurors where one juror had telephoned the defendant and said we were pressured into making our decision. Id. And in O'Rear v. Fruehauf Corp., 554 F.2d 1304, 1309-10 (5th Cir.1977), 4 the former Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of defense counsel's interview request where the defendant alleged that a juror was seen speaking with courtroom spectators during a recess but presented no evidence demonstrating improper conveyance of information to the jury. Id.
28 Approximately two months after the verdict was rendered, Polynice filed a sealed motion to interview Juror Cetoute regarding an alleged extrinsic contact with a non-juror during deliberations. During Polynice's sentencing hearing, the district court allowed Polynice's counsel to discuss the motion to interview Cetoute and to present a witness in support of the motion. The witness, Celia Metayer (Polynice's sister), testified that during jury deliberations, she saw Juror Cetoute at a McDonald's restaurant. Metayer claimed that she overheard Cetoute say to a non-juror: Well you know those boys—those boys got felony anyway, and that We asked the Judge for questions—we have a lot of questions. We asked him for help. He won't help us. And those boys got felonies. We are going to take a vote on it. According to Metayer, the non-juror responded What are you talking about? Metayer could not remember the precise day on which this exchange occurred, and she claimed that she did not immediately report the incident to defense counsel because she was afraid of the law. She did not relay this information to her brother, Polynice, until after the verdict, at which time Polynice informed his counsel. 29 In a written order, the district court denied Polynice's motion to interview Juror Cetoute, concluding that the evidence did not rise to the level needed for a juror interview. The court held that even accepting Metayer's testimony as true, there were no allegations of external influence on the jurors, there was no indication that an outside influence affected the verdict, and there was no substantial and incontrovertible evidence that a specific, nonspeculative impropriety occurred that could have prejudiced Polynice. On appeal, Polynice argues that the district court abused its discretion by denying his motion. We disagree. 30 As the district court concluded, even if Metayer's account is accepted, at most, it demonstrates that Juror Cetoute disobeyed the district court's instruction to not discuss the case. Polynice does not argue that extraneous prejudicial information was brought to Juror Cetoute's attention, that extraneous information entered into her decisionmaking, or that she was subject to improper outside influence. Under our case law, the district court did not err when it refused to allow Polynice's counsel to interview Juror Cetoute.
31 After the verdict was read, the court clerk polled the jury as to whether they concurred in the verdict. During the polling, Witherspoon engaged in a disruptive outburst causing the court to suspend polling midway through the process. After the polling was completed and the jury dismissed, Witherspoon's counsel made a motion to interview Juror Whitehead, noting that Whitehead had hesitated before affirming his concurrence in the verdict. The district court denied this motion as well as a subsequent motion for a mistrial, stating that although Whitehead did hesitate for a few seconds, he eventually said `Yes.' The court explained that My guess is the reason that he hesitated was because it was an emotional experience to hear all that screaming going on in the courtroom from what I assume were relatives of the defendants. So had we gone sidebar I wouldn't have inquired any more of Juror [Whitehead]. 32 Approximately three months later, Witherspoon filed a written motion to interview Juror Whitehead, which Polynice later adopted, based on Whitehead's hesitant affirmation of the verdict and the fact that the jury's original verdict form reflected a not guilty verdict for Witherspoon on the firearm counts. In his written motion, Witherspoon referenced codefendant Polynice's allegation of extrinsic contact with Juror Cetoute and argued that this extrinsic contact coupled with Whitehead's hesitation trigger[ed] the need for an investigation through juror interview. In a written order, the district court denied Witherspoon's motion. The court stated that after reviewing the audiotape of the proceedings, it determined that there was a time-gap of at least 1.5 and not more than 3 seconds between the clerk asking Juror Whitehead to affirm his verdict and Whitehead's response. The court also noted that Witherspoon's outburst began even before the clerk had polled Juror # 1 (Whitehead was Juror # 3). The court held that a juror who allegedly violated the court's admonition by talking about the case to a non-juror at McDonald's during an evening recess . . . and a juror who pauses less than three seconds before affirming his verdict during a poll, do not individually nor cumulatively merit granting Witherspoon's motion to interview Juror Whitehead. In a subsequent order, the court denied Polynice's adopted motion for the same reasons it denied Witherspoon's motion. 33 In our view, Witherspoon and Polynice's allegation of juror impropriety is weaker than the allegations in the cases discussed above. See Hooshmand, 931 F.2d at 737; Cuthel, 903 F.2d at 1382; O'Rear, 554 F.2d at 1309-10. Given that Whitehead's hesitation was, at most, three seconds and was plausibly attributable to Witherspoon's emotional outbursts, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motions to interview Juror Whitehead.