Opinion ID: 781722
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Yousef's Motion for a Change of Venue

Text: 387 Yousef argues that the District Court erred in denying his pre-trial motion for a change of venue in light of negative publicity. We review a district court's decision to deny a motion to change venue for abuse of discretion, see United States v. Maldonado-Rivera, 922 F.2d 934, 967 (2d Cir.1990), and find no such abuse in the instant case. The first World Trade Center bombing trial, United States v. Salameh, had taken place two years earlier, press coverage had substantially subsided by the time Yousef was brought to trial, and there was minimal publicity in the months immediately preceding his trial. Indeed, the news stories that Yousef points to on appeal were not about Yousef's involvement in the World Trade Center bombing, but about speculation that he may have been involved in other crimes, such as the Oklahoma City bombing. 388 Moreover, as Yousef acknowledges, the key to determining the appropriateness of a change of venue is a searching voir dire of the members of the jury pool. See United States v. Gaggi, 811 F.2d 47, 51 (2d Cir.1987) (setting forth three-part analysis for determining if change of venue is warranted, two of which pertain to questioning potential jurors during voir dire to determine their exposure to the publicity). Here, the District Court conducted an extensive voir dire and the jurors that were picked had either never heard of Yousef or could not remember any of the details of his alleged involvement in the World Trade Center bombing. See United States v. Washington, 48 F.3d 73, 78 (2d Cir.1995) (affirming denial of venue motion where publicity was not shown to be sufficiently pervasive and negative and where thorough voir dire screened jurors who may have formed an opinion). Notably, Yousef has not challenged the District Court's voir dire or suggested that the voir dire resulted in a jury tainted by the pre-trial publicity. In addition, while the District Court's decision denying the motion stated that a thorough voir dire of potential jurors will be sufficient in detecting and eliminating any prospective jurors prejudiced by pretrial publicity, United States v. Yousef, No. S12 93 Cr. 180(KTD), slip op. at 8 (S.D.N.Y. July 16, 1997), Yousef did not renew the motion for a change of venue after the voir dire—an indication that counsel was satisfied that the voir dire resulted in a jury that had not been tainted by publicity. 389