Opinion ID: 545485
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: jury polling

Text: 11 Appellants next argue that this court should reverse the district court and order a new trial based upon the district court's refusal to conduct a thorough poll of the jury. Prior to the return of the verdict, the court received a note from one of the jurors stating she was not in agreement with the question of damages and that she was answering the question only for purposes of the record. That note also was signed by the foreperson, who added that she and the other jurors did not share the opinion of the first juror. From a reading of these ambiguous notes it is possible to conclude that at the time they were written, there was lack of unanimity among the jurors. The verdict, however, was reached two hours after these notes were written. 12 The district court then proceeded to poll the jury. During these proceedings the district court ordered the verdict to be read aloud and instructed the jury to pay: 13 close attention to the verdicts as they're going to be published and read aloud in open court. And following publication of the verdict, the jury will be polled. That is each juror will be asked individually whether the verdict as published constitute [sic] his or her, as the case may be, individual verdict. 14 Thereafter, each and every one of the jurors was individually queried as to their concurrence with the verdict. All expressed their agreement. Appellants challenge the adequacy of this procedure. 15 To support their contention appellants cite various criminal cases 1 in which trial courts have been reversed for their actions in polling jurors. United States v. Luciano, 734 F.2d 68, 70 (1st Cir.1984); Sincox v. United States, 571 F.2d 876 (5th Cir.1978). All of these are inapposite to the present circumstances. These are cases in which a juror expressed a lingering doubt during or after the polling, notwithstanding which, the judge persisted in treating the juror's answer as to the polling as unqualified, and hastened to announce a unanimous vote. In Luciano, the court concluded that the judge's error was that he dominated the juror and counsel fully as much as if he raced to record a verdict, effectually foreclosing any opportunity to poll jurors. United States v. Luciano, 734 F.2d at 70. We disagree with appellants' contention that these cases have any relevance to the record made in the situation at bar. 16 In the instant case the district court was first confronted with the possibility that the verdict was not unanimous before the verdict was entered and therefore before the polling. Two hours of deliberation took place thereafter, between the receipt of the note and the verdict. Then, during the actual polling there was no representation of lingering doubts or equivocation in the result expressed by any of the jurors. Lastly, the record reveals that in polling the jury the district court, clearly followed Audette v. Isaksen Fishing Corp., 789 F.2d 956, 958-59 (1st Cir.1986), and ascertained that the verdict reached by the jurors was untainted and unanimous. 17 In Audette, this court stated that the purpose of a jury poll was to make certain that the jury had reached a unanimous and uncoerced verdict, i.e., to eliminate any uncertainty as to unanimity of the verdict. Id. at 70. In that case we also suggested our preference for individual polling and held that the trial court has substantial discretion to decide how to poll the jury. Audette v. Isaksen Fishing Corp., 789 F.2d at 959-60 (quoting United States v. Mangieri, 694 F.2d 1270, 1282 (D.C.Cir.1982). We find that, the district court's individual polling was within the scope of its discretion.