Opinion ID: 201905
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Claim of Error in District Court Inquiry of Jurors

Text: 30 Yeje-Cabrera raises a claim of jury taint arising from a note that a juror sent to the judge. We review for abuse of discretion the claim that the trial court failed to conduct an appropriate inquiry into allegations of jury taint. United States v. Paniagua-Ramos, 251 F.3d 242, 249 (1st Cir.2001). 31 At the commencement of the trial, the district court instructed the jurors that they must not discuss the case with each other or with anyone else during the trial, that it was the government's burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the defendants were not obliged to testify or present any evidence. For the first ten days of trial, there was no inkling of anything awry with any juror. Then, during the eleventh day of trial, a juror sent a note to the judge. The note said: 32 WHY [ARE] THE DEFENDANTS NOT GOING TO BE CROSS-EXAMINED? 33 4 DEFENDANTS SHOULD BE CROSS-EXAMINED! 34 THIS SHOULD BE DONE IN THIS CASE! 35 The court shared this note with counsel. Defense counsel urged the court to identify the juror, interview her and the other jurors individually to ascertain whether she had spoken with them, then excuse her. The court declined, opting instead to issue a strongly worded curative instruction on the burden of proof and on jurors' duty to refrain from discussion. The court instructed the members of the jury that if any of them could not follow these instructions, he or she was to speak with the clerk. It polled the jury as a group, asking for a show of hands on whether jurors had discussed the case among themselves. No juror admitted doing so. 36 That night and the next morning, the juror who had sent the note to the judge communicated with the court and its clerk multiple times. She expressed that she was upset over the judge's handling of the note and that she still had opinions about the case that were consistent with her note. By the time trial was to resume on the twelfth day, the court had dismissed this juror and so informed counsel. Defense counsel again requested that the court interview the remaining jurors individually, but the court declined, stating that the jurors had already satisfactorily responded to the prior day's group inquiry, and that since that time they could have had no contact with the note-sending juror. 37 Yeje-Cabrera's essential claim is that the juror who sent the note, although removed from the jury the next day, likely had expressed her strongly felt views to the other jurors and thus tainted the jury's deliberations. The court's response to the note, Yeje-Cabrera argues, was inadequate. In particular, he points to peer pressure, and to the fact that the court had just delivered a stinging rebuke to the jury, as factors rendering the show of hands unreliable. Even though the jurors unanimously indicated that they had followed the court's instructions not to discuss the case among themselves, he argues, the court did not do enough: under these circumstances, a juror who had not followed instructions could not be expected to raise a hand. He argues that the court should have individually interviewed the juror who sent the note and all the other members of the jury to ascertain whether they had followed instructions. Yeje-Cabrera further argues that the district court's method of handling the problem was so deficient as to require that the conviction be vacated: he claims that the district court could not do effective damage control, and that this court cannot engage in meaningful appellate review, because the district court's failure to conduct individualized inquiries deprived it and us of essential information. Such hyperbole does not win the day. 38 This was a difficult situation and the trial judge acted well within the range of permissible options. Trial judges have a wide latitude in how to handle a claim of potential juror misconduct. See Paniagua-Ramos, 251 F.3d at 250 ([W]hile a trial court has an unflagging duty adequately to probe a nonfrivolous claim of jury taint, the court has wide discretion to determine the scope of the resulting inquiry and the mode and manner in which it will be conducted. (citations omitted)). 39 Here the claim of taint is not about the juror who sent the note; she was dismissed after she said she could not continue in the case. The question is whether she tainted the others. Yeje-Cabrera draws the inference — from the emphatic nature of the juror's note to the judge — that the juror had disseminated her views to the other jurors, in violation of instructions. Moreover, he argues, her expressed views might have overridden in the other jurors' minds the court's strong curative instruction about the government's burden of proof. 40 While the posited scenario is possible, we think that such inferences are not reasonable. During the show of hands, the juror who sent the note and the other jurors denied there had been discussions. We acknowledge that asking jurors en masse, before their peers, whether they have failed to comply with the court's instructions may tend to discourage an honest affirmative response. But the court also invited individual jurors to contact it afterwards, and none, other than the juror who sent the note, did so. 41 Even if the one juror had communicated her views to the other jurors, there is also no reason to think those jurors were dissuaded from following the instructions of the judge, much less that this somehow led jurors to penalize the defendants for their decision not to take the stand. 42 There was no abuse of discretion. Cf. United States v. Richman, 600 F.2d 286, 295-96 (1st Cir.1979) (where court satisfied itself that other jurors had not overheard one juror's potentially improper remark and had not been discussing case among themselves, refusal to conduct individualized inquiry of remaining jurors was within court's discretion).