Opinion ID: 752560
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Scott's statement

Text: 23 Scott contends that under the circumstances of the trial, the jury's request to review his redacted statement should have been denied. Scott notes that the evidentiary segment of his trial occurred on a single day, that the trial judge did not allow the jurors to take notes, and that Scott did not testify. He also suggests that the manner of redacting the statement allowed the jury to speculate about what was excluded. He argues that the jury may have placed excessive weight on his statement, pointing to the fact that the jurors concluded their deliberations within 15 minutes of receiving the exhibits. 24 The trial court may, at its discretion, send exhibits into the jury room. United States v. Samples, 713 F.2d 298, 303 (7th Cir.1983). The role of appellate review is to insure that the district court's decision did not clearly prejudice the defendant. See United States v. De Hernandez, 745 F.2d 1305, 1308 (10th Cir .1984). At most, Scott's arguments address the risk of prejudice, and fall far short of establishing clear prejudice. 25 The trial transcript reveals that the district court considered Scott's arguments in light of the appropriate standard, and was satisfied that no und[ue] prejudice, or any prejudice at all would result from sending to the jury the exhibits which were admitted either by the stipulation or otherwise. 6 Tr. 353. The district court also prudently sent all of the exhibits to the jury--except, at the defendant's request, the cocaine--since sending the [statement] alone might have caused undue emphasis to be placed upon one exhibit in the case. United States v. Thomas, 521 F.2d 76, 82 (5th Cir.1975), overruled on other grounds by McLaughlin v. United States, 476 U.S. 16, 106 S.Ct. 1677, 90 L.Ed.2d 15 (1986). After Scott objected to the initial redacting of inadmissible material in his statement by blacking out one paragraph, the court had a second version prepared: the photocopy of the cut and paste procedure. Scott did not object to this revised manner of redacting the document or suggest any other means of eliminating the inadmissible material. We have examined both the original statement and the version provided to the jury, and are not convinced the version given to the jury invited prejudicial speculation about what was omitted. 26 Scott's claim that [t]here is no question but that the jury made its decision based upon defendant's statement, Br. & App. of Appellant at 14, is based on the fact that the jury concluded its deliberations within 15 minutes of receiving his statement. But this does not mean it was prejudicial to send the statement into the jury room along with the other exhibits. The jury specifically requested the defendant's statement, suggesting that the jury already considered the statement to be significant. The jury could have based its decision on the defendant's statement with or without having the written version before them. In any event, the sequence of events does not show that the jury placed greater weight on the statement than on any of the other evidence.