Opinion ID: 788146
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Gray v. Mississippi Distinguished

Text: 33 Perez relies heavily on Gray v. Mississippi, 481 U.S. 648, 107 S.Ct. 2045, 95 L.Ed.2d 622 (1987), to support his argument that exclusion of English from the jury panel was reversible error. In Gray the Supreme Court held the erroneous exclusion of a juror for cause in a capital prosecution was reversible error not subject to harmless error review. That case however involved a jury that convicted petitioner of a capital crime and sentenced him to death, after a prospective juror who had voiced general objections to the death penalty was erroneously stricken. While upholding defendant's conviction, the Court vacated the sentence of death and remanded for resentencing out of concern for a capital defendant's constitutional right not to be sentenced by a `tribunal organized to return a verdict of death.' Id. at 668, 107 S.Ct. 2045 (quoting Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 521, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968)). 34 Appellant's attempt to extend Gray beyond the scope of capital sentencing is foreclosed by the Supreme Court's decision, just one year later, in Ross v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 81, 108 S.Ct. 2273, 101 L.Ed.2d 80 (1988). In Ross, the Court stated 35 We decline to extend the rule of Gray beyond its context: the erroneous  Witherspoon exclusion of a qualified juror in a capital case. We think the broad language used by the Gray Court is too sweeping to be applied literally, and is best understood in the context of the facts there involved. 36 Id. at 87-88, 108 S.Ct. 2273. 37 In Ross, the Supreme Court rejected a defendant's argument that the loss of a peremptory challenge, without more, constitutes a violation of the constitutional right to an impartial jury. The trial court in Ross had erroneously refused to excuse a biased juror for cause, forcing the defendant to use a peremptory challenge. The Court held that so long as the jury that ultimately sits is impartial, the fact that the defendant had to use a peremptory challenge to achieve an unbiased jury does not translate into a Sixth Amendment violation. Id. at 88, 108 S.Ct. 2273; see also United States v. Martinez-Salazar, 528 U.S. 304, 317, 120 S.Ct. 774, 145 L.Ed.2d 792 (2000) (when a defendant elects to use a peremptory challenge to cure an error and is ultimately convicted by an impartial jury, there has been no due process violation). 38 Perez tries to evade the limitation of Gray to capital cases by citing a recent Second Circuit opinion, United States v. Nelson, 277 F.3d 164 (2d Cir.2002), which he believes applied Gray to a non-capital case. Appellant points out that in a footnote, the Nelson court observed that `among those basic fair trial rights that can never be treated as harmless is a defendant's right to an impartial adjudicator, be it judge or jury.' Id. at 204 n. 48 (quoting Gomez v. United States, 490 U.S. 858, 876, 109 S.Ct. 2237, 104 L.Ed.2d 923 (1989) (quoting Gray v. Mississippi, 481 U.S. 648, 668, 107 S.Ct. 2045, 95 L.Ed.2d 622 (1987))). Appellant relies on this dicta for the proposition that jury impaneling errors can never be harmless even in non-capital cases. He is mistaken. 39 Assuming Nelson can be read to preclude harmless error analysis in the circumstances of that case, the error in Nelson that we held to be structural and, therefore, not subject to harmless error review was the erroneous impaneling of a biased juror. Here, however, we are concerned with the erroneous exclusion of an unbiased juror when the jury ultimately impaneled is impartial. Not every error during voir dire compels a new trial, and outside of the limited realm that Gray carved out for capital sentencing, the inquiry we ordinarily engage in asks whether an error of exclusion resulted in prejudice to the defendant. Since appellant does not contest that the jury ultimately impaneled was fair and impartial, his allegation of error does not implicate his constitutional right to a fair trial. See Towne, 870 F.2d at 885 (Since appellant has in no way established the partiality of the jury that ultimately convicted him, he may not successfully claim deprivation of his sixth amendment or due process rights.). 40 II Admission of Consciousness of Guilt Testimony 41 We turn to the evidentiary challenge. On September 15, 1999 Perez had an encounter with police that resulted in a consensual search of his apartment. During that search, police seized several important pieces of evidence, including multiple firearms and a bulletproof vest. Before trial, defendant sought to exclude the evidence seized from his apartment on the ground that the police had not obtained consent for the search and seizure. The district court held a hearing and denied appellant's motion to suppress. In its written ruling, the district court relied on the testimony of two police officers, Investigator William Kelly and Detective Juan Checo, who had testified that the search was consensual. 42 Several weeks after this ruling, Sugeilis Gutierrez told defense investigators she had witnessed the police stop that led to the search, and that, contrary to the officers' testimony, police had approached appellant on the street with guns drawn, then handcuffed him and forcibly removed his apartment keys from his pocket. An investigator recorded his conversation with Ms. Gutierrez without her knowledge, and this tape was turned over to the United States Attorney's office. The government interviewed Ms. Gutierrez regarding the contents of the tape, at which point she admitted that her statements on the tape were false and that Perez had paid her to lie to investigators. 43 Ms. Gutierrez testified at trial that she had met four times with appellant and on each occasion he asked her to give a false statement to investigators regarding the circumstances of the search. She said that Perez had offered her more than $5,000 and a trip to the Dominican Republic in exchange for her making false statements. The court admitted this testimony for the limited purpose of showing defendant's consciousness of guilt, and it gave the jury a limiting instruction to that effect. 44 Perez argues that since the legality of the search had already been definitively decided by the district court before trial, Ms. Gutierrez's testimony was not relevant to the issues at trial, namely his alleged participation in a drug conspiracy. Further, he asserts that at most, Ms. Gutierrez admitted she had been asked to lie to appellant's own investigators, not to give false testimony in court, and that the case law limits the admissibility of consciousness of guilt testimony to circumstances in which a defendant asks a witness to testify falsely. Appellant believes the admission of Ms. Gutierrez's testimony was unfairly prejudicial and requires a new trial. 45 As a general matter, all relevant evidence is admissible under the Federal Rules of Evidence unless specifically excluded. See Fed.R.Evid. 402. Relevant evidence is evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. Fed. R.Evid. 401. District courts have broad discretion to assess the relevancy of evidence and we will not overturn that determination unless it is arbitrary or irrational. United States v. Cruz, 797 F.2d 90, 95 (2d Cir.1986). 46 Evidence of a party's consciousness of guilt may be relevant if reasonable inferences can be drawn from it and if the evidence is probative of guilt. See 2 Jack B. Weinstein & Margaret A. Berger, Weinstein's Federal Evidence, § 401.08 (2d ed.1997). Such evidence is admissible if the court (1) determines that the evidence is offered for a purpose other than to prove the defendant's bad character or criminal propensity, (2) decides that the evidence is relevant and satisfies Rule 403, and (3) provides an appropriate instruction to the jury as to the limited purposes for which the evidence is introduced, if a limiting instruction is requested. United States v. Mickens, 926 F.2d 1323, 1328-29 (2d Cir.1991). 47 We have upheld the admission of various kinds of evidence on the ground that it demonstrated consciousness of guilt. For example, proof of defendant's flight after a charged crime occurred may be admissible even though that evidence might be subject to varying interpretations. See United States v. Ayala, 307 F.2d 574, 576 (2d Cir.1962) (Marshall, J.). Likewise, we have upheld the admission of evidence of attempted witness or jury tampering as probative of a defendant's consciousness of guilt. See Mickens, 926 F.2d at 1329. While falsehoods told by a defendant in hope of evading prosecution are not themselves sufficient evidence on which to base a conviction, such falsehoods may strengthen an inference of guilt supplied by other evidence. See United States v. Glenn, 312 F.3d 58, 69 (2d Cir.2002); United States v. Johnson, 513 F.2d 819, 824 (2d Cir.1975). 48 We have no trouble concluding that the district court did not abuse its discretion by permitting Ms. Gutierrez to testify. Appellant's intent and knowledge were at issue during the trial, and a jury could rationally have found that Ms. Gutierrez's testimony was probative of appellant's state of mind. Since other evidence was presented relating to appellant's knowledge and intent, Ms. Gutierrez's testimony merely strengthened inferences that were derived from other evidence. The court's limiting instruction adequately informed the jury of how it could appropriately consider Ms. Gutierrez's testimony. 49 As to whether the testimony's probative value was substantially outweighed by the risk of unfair prejudice, see Fed.R.Evid. 403, we review that determination also for abuse of discretion. United States v. Baez, 349 F.3d 90, 94 (2d Cir. 2003) (per curiam). The trial court reasonably concluded that the testimony was probative of appellant's state of mind, and the court conscientiously weighed that probity against the prejudice the testimony might engender. It determined that since the attempted coercion of the witness was nonviolent, it was no more sensational than the other evidence of the alleged narcotics crimes. Such ruling was not an abuse of discretion.