Opinion ID: 758679
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Government's Trial Charts

Text: 196 Jackquet and Watson complain that the district court erred in allowing the government to display throughout the trial time-line and organizational charts. The time line was posted on eight large poster boards on easels. The organizational chart arranged photographs of the defendants in a manner that demonstrated the government's theory of the defendants' roles in the conspiracies and substantive RICO offenses. Summaries of evidence and testimony were attached to the time-line chart with Velcro as those items were admitted into evidence. The district court allowed the charts to be used as demonstrative aids. Since the charts were not admitted in evidence, they were not sent to the jury room during deliberations. 197 Since the government did not offer the charts into evidence and the trial court did not admit them, we need not decide whether, as appellants argue, they were not admissible under Fed.R.Evid. 1006, which allows charts and summaries of voluminous writings, recordings, or photographs to be received as evidence. Where, as here, the party using the charts does not offer them into evidence, their use at trial is not governed by Fed.R.Evid. 1006. See Pierce v. Ramsey Winch Co., 753 F.2d 416, 431 (5th Cir.1985). 198 We review the district court's decision to allow the government to display summary charts for abuse of discretion. See United States v. Winn, 948 F.2d 145, 158 (5th Cir.1991). As the trial court explained in her memorandum and order allowing the use of the charts, the charts were not evidence but were pedagogical devices intended to present the government's version of the case. This court has held that the use of a chart as a demonstrative aid to summarize the evidence is permissible as long as the court gives the jury appropriate limiting instructions. See United States v. Torres, 114 F.3d 520, 526 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 316, 139 L.Ed.2d 244 (1997). In this case the district court instructed the jury that the charts were not evidence and that the summary was just an effort to help you follow the evidence that you are going to be hearing over the course of the trial. The district court gave additional instructions during the trial that the charts were not evidence when asked to do so by defense counsel. We are satisfied that Fed.R.Evid. 611(a) afforded the district court discretion to allow the government to use the summary charts and organizational charts. The district court's rulings allowing the use of the charts, when accompanied by the court's repeated limiting instructions, was not an abuse of discretion. 16 199