Opinion ID: 347528
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Motions for Continuance or Change of Venue

Text: 38 It is fundamental that the right to jury trial guarantees to the criminally accused a fair trial by a panel of impartial, 'indifferent' jurors. Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U.S. 717, 722, 81 S.Ct. 1639, 1642, 6 L.Ed.2d 751 (1961). To be indifferent a juror need not be ignorant: 39 It is not required, however, that the jurors be totally ignorant of the facts and issues involved. In these days of swift, widespread and diverse methods of communication, an important case can be expected to arouse the interest of the public in the vicinity, and scarcely any of those best qualified to serve as jurors will not have formed some impression or opinion as to the merits of the case. This is particularly true in criminal cases. To hold that the mere existence of any preconceived notion as to the guilt or innocence of an accused, without more, is sufficient to rebut the presumption of a prospective juror's impartiality would be to establish an impossible standard. It is sufficient if the juror can lay aside his impression or opinion and render a verdict based on the evidence presented in court.    40 Id. at 722-723, 81 S.Ct. at 1642 (emphasis added). Accord, Murphy v. Florida, 421 U.S. 794, 799-800, 95 S.Ct. 2031, 44 L.Ed.2d 589 (1975). 41 Irvin establishes a common-sense standard of juror qualification. United States v. Caldwell, 178 U.S.App.D.C. 20, 33, 543 F.2d 1333, 1346 (1974), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1087, 96 S.Ct. 877, 47 L.Ed.2d 97 (1976). In keeping with that approach, a defendant who claims he was denied a fair trial because the jury was not sufficiently indifferent generally must sustain that claim  'not as a matter of speculation but as a demonstrable reality.'  United States ex rel. Darcy v. Handy, 351 U.S. 454, 462, 76 S.Ct. 965, 970, 100 L.Ed. 1331 (1956), quoting Adams v. United States ex rel. McCann, 317 U.S. 269, 281, 63 S.Ct. 236, 87 L.Ed. 268 (1942). 29 This demonstration can be made only by reference to the voir dire. In extreme circumstances, however, prejudice to the defendant's rights may be presumed. Calley v. Callaway, 519 F.2d 184, 204 (5th Cir. 1975), (en banc ) (dictum), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 888, 96 S.Ct. 182, 46 L.Ed.2d 119 (April 5, 1976). 30 Appellants urge that this exception applies to their case and that the District Court committed reversible error by denying their pre-voir dire motions 31 for a continuance of a change of venue. 42 The Supreme Court has reversed a conviction because it presumed that pretrial publicity had made a fair trial impossible only in the case of Rideau v. Louisiana, 373 U.S. 723, 83 S.Ct. 1417, 10 L.Ed.2d 663 (1963). 32 The defendant in Rideau was filmed making an in-custody confession to the bank robbery, kidnapping, and murder for which he was convicted. That film was then broadcast three times to large audiences in Calcasieu Parish, whose total population was 150,000. The Court concluded, without examining the voir dire transcript, that denial of Rideau's motion for a change of venue constituted a violation of his due process rights: 43 For anyone who has ever watched television the conclusion cannot be avoided that this spectacle (the filmed confession), to the tens of thousands of people who saw and heard it, in a very real sense was Rideau's trial at which he pleaded guilty to murder. Any subsequent court proceedings in a community so pervasively exposed to such a spectacle could be but a hollow formality. 44 Id. at 726, 83 S.Ct. at 1419 (emphasis in original). 45  A confession or statement against interest is the paradigm of  facts that strongly implicate an accused   . Nebraska Press Ass'n v. Stuart, 423 U.S. 1327, 1332-1333, 96 S.Ct. 251, 255, 46 L.Ed.2d 237 (1975) (Blackmun, Circuit Justice). We have carefully reviewed the Watergate articles submitted by appellants, and we find that the pretrial publicity in this case, although massive, was neither as inherently prejudicial nor as unforgettable as the spectacle of Rideau's dramatically staged and broadcast confession. It is true that some of the pieces contained in the extensive collection of articles gathered by appellants are hostile in tone and accusatory in content. The overwhelming bulk of the material submitted, however, consists of straightforward, unemotional factual accounts 33 of events and of the progress of official and unofficial investigations. 34 In short, unlike the situation faced by the Court in Rideau, we find in the publicity here no reason for concluding that the population of Washington, D. C. was so aroused against appellants and so unlikely to be able objectively to judge their guilt or innocence on the basis of the evidence presented at trial that their due process rights were violated by the District Court's refusal to grant a lengthy continuance or a change of venue prior to attempting selection of a jury. 35 46 The federal courts can, of course, establish more rigorous standards for their own governance than those minimum guarantees of fairness imposed on the state courts by the Constitution. See, e. g., Ristaino v. Ross,424 U.S. 589, 597 & nn.9-10, 96 S.Ct. 1017, 47 L.Ed.2d 258 (1976); Murphy v. Florida, supra, 421 U.S. at 797-798; id. at 804, 95 S.Ct. 2031 (Burger, C. J., concurring); cf. United States v. Williams, 523 F.2d 1203, 1209 n.11 (5th Cir. 1975). We believe, however, that it is inappropriate to attempt to formulate a supervisory power standard for concluding that a fair jury cannot be selected. Except in the most extreme cases, like Rideau, 36 such a pre-voir dire conclusion must depend solely on the subjective reaction of the judge who reaches it. 37 Invocation of an appellate court's supervisory power to require a continuance or a change of venue, although failure to do so did not constitute a denial of due process, would therefore introduce additional unguided discretionary line-drawing and consequent uncertainty into the process of litigating controversial cases. 38 Moreover, this uncertainty would not guarantee a commensurate increase in the fairness of federal criminal trials. When the trial court has taken all appropriate measures to minimize pretrial publicity, as was the case here, 39 a supervisory fair trial standard, however stated, could not stimulate the court to additional vigilance in protecting the defendant's right to be tried on the evidence presented in court. 40 And if an impartial jury actually cannot be selected, that fact should become evident at the voir dire. The defendant will then be entitled to any actions necessary to assure that he receives a fair trial. In sum, we believe that each case must turn on its special facts. Marshall v. United States, 360 U.S. 310, 312, 79 S.Ct. 1171, 1173, 3 L.Ed.2d 1250 (1959). 41 47 For these reasons we hold that the District Court was correct to follow this circuit's well established procedure by refusing appellants' pre-voir dire requests for a continuance 42 or a change of venue. 43 See, e. g., United States v. Wilkerson, 175 U.S.App.D.C. 383, 384, 536 F.2d 410, 411 (1976), (per curiam ); United States v. Caldwell, supra, 178 U.S.App.D.C. at 29, 543 F.2d at 1342; Jones v. Gasch, 131 U.S.App.D.C. 254, 261, 404 F.2d 1231, 1238 (1967), cert. denied, 390 U.S. 1029, 88 S.Ct. 1414, 20 L.Ed.2d 286 (1968). We therefore turn to an examination of the voir dire itself.