Opinion ID: 2972727
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Reading the indictment to the jury

Text: Smith also argues that the district court abused its discretion when it read the indictment against him and his codefendants to the jury. See United States v. Scales, 594 F.2d 558, 561-62 (6th Cir. 1979) (reviewing the district court’s decision to read aloud and provide copies of the indictment to the jury for an abuse of discretion). Under normal circumstances, we have no doubt that a district court is well within its discretion in deciding to read an indictment to the jury. See United States v. Maselli, 534 F.2d 1197, 1202 (6th Cir. 1976) (observing that the practice of reading the indictment aloud helps to inform the jury of the charges against the defendant). In the present case, however, Smith contends that the reading of the indictment was improper because it repeatedly referred to Smith by the alias “Pops Bishop.” Whether Smith in fact used this nickname was a contested issue at trial. Smith, however, failed to contemporaneously object to the district court’s reading of the indictment to the jury. His claim must therefore be analyzed under the plain-error standard of review. See Pugh, 405 F.3d at 402 (“[F]or us to reverse the ruling of the district court, there must be error, which is plain, which affected the substantial rights of the appellant, and which ‘seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings.’”) (quoting Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461, 467 (1997) (alternation in original)). At Smith’s trial, an FBI agent testified that Smith admitted during an interview that people call him by the names “Pops” and “Bishop.” The jury also heard evidence that the FBI had compared a voice exemplar taken from Smith with the voice of the man referred to as “Pops” and “Bishop” in the taped telephone calls, and No. 04-1476 United States v. Smith Page 8 determined that the man speaking on the tapes was Smith. Because there was significant evidence that Smith had used the nicknames “Pops” and “Bishop,” Smith cannot show that his substantial rights were adversely affected by the district court’s reading of the indictment to the jury. 2. Providing the deliberating jury with a copy of the indictment The district court also furnished a copy of the indictment to the jury, and it did so without issuing a limiting instruction. Failure to instruct the jury “to the effect that the indictment is not to be considered evidence of the guilt of the accused” constitutes error. Scales, 594 F.2d at 561-62 (stating that “the rule is clear that the trial judge has discretion to submit the indictment to the jury in a criminal case,” but only “as long as limiting instructions are given”); see also United States v. Baker, 418 F.2d 851, 852-53 (6th Cir. 1969) (per curiam) (“We conclude that it was an abuse of discretion for the trial court to permit these photostatic copies of a document possessing all of the indicia of a formal United States government document . . . to be handed to the jury without a proper explanation of the document and of the purpose of its delivery . . . .”). Smith did not timely object to the district court’s failure to offer a limiting instruction. He insists, however, that his claim should be evaluated under the abuse-of-discretion standard rather than the plain-error standard because of the “unique circumstances of this case.” Specifically, Smith argues that, before the trial, his attorney brought a motion to strike the name “Pops Bishop” from the indictment. The district court denied the motion by stating that it was “much ado about nothing” because “in my courtroom, the Jury never sees the indictment.” But in so ruling, the district court also said: “I have no present intent for the Jury to know that those words are in the indictment. No need to strike them necessarily. Maybe somewhere along the line you will convince me . . . .” The record reveals that the district court did in fact change its position with respect to whether the jury should be provided with the indictment. At that time, however, Smith failed to raise an objection either to the indictment’s use of the nicknames or the district court’s failure to issue a limiting instruction to the jury. The decision of the district court to permit the jury to view the indictment must therefore be upheld unless Smith’s substantial rights were affected. See United States v. Darwich, 337 F.3d 645, 655-56 (6th Cir. 2003) (“[F]ailure to raise an objection in the district court . . . limits appellate review to a plain error inquiry . . . .”). Because there was significant evidence that connected Smith with the name “Pops Bishop,” Smith cannot show that providing a copy of the indictment to the jury constituted plain error. See Baker, 418 F.2d at 853 (finding that the defendant’s constitutional rights were not affected where “the overwhelming weight of the evidence of guilt presented [made] it . . . clear beyond a reasonable doubt that neither a refusal to permit the jurors unlimited access to the[] copies of the indictment nor the offering of a proper contemporaneous instruction would have altered the verdict”).