Court Opinion

ID: 9735188
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:04:41.345225+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:55.908479
License: Public Domain

SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON, J.
(dissenting). No one questions that juror Relyea, although honest, "incorrectly or incompletely responded to a material question on voir dire." State v. Wyss, 124 Wis. 2d 681, 726, 370 N.W.2d 745 (1985), overruled on other grounds, State v. Poellinger, 153 Wis. 2d 493, 506, 451 N.W.2d 752 (1990). In the exchange shown in the margin at note 10 of the majority opinion, defense counsel asked the juror six times what she had heard about the defendant. In her seven responses to this question, the juror failed to tell the court that she had heard the defendant had been accused of raping a young girl. The juror explained her silence by saying that what she heard was only gossip, that she did not know for sure.
Similarly, in this case, Juror Walsted was questioned in voir dire about the details of the newspaper article he said he had read about the case. He was able to recall from the article that the crime involved a residential break-in and a sexual assault. However, he did not add that he had also learned from the article that the defendant had a prior criminal record, despite his testimony at the post-conviction hearing that he knew about the defendant's record at the time he was sworn in.
A defendant's right to be tried by a fair and impartial jury is guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the federal constitution and by the state constitution. The voir dire process is the primary mechanism for spotting possible juror bias and identi*284fying jurors who have acquired information about a case through pre-trial publicity. Trial courts and parties ask prospective jurors to explain what they already know about the facts of a case to identify bias that might not be subjectively evident to a juror. When prospective jurors provide incomplete or inaccurate information in voir dire, the process of selecting a fair and impartial jury is undermined. Of course jurors, like all human beings, can forget to mention information that the court or the parties might consider relevant. Such omissions are not grounds for a new trial. In this case, however, the information is per se prejudicial.
Clearly, a prospective juror's knowledge of a defendant's prior criminal conduct is relevant information to the process of selecting a fair and impartial jury in a criminal case. The rule generally prohibiting the introduction of evidence of other crimes is based on the fact that the evidence apparently has too much probative value. As Wigmore has stated, "the natural and inevitable tendency of the tribunal — whether judge or jury — is to give excessive weight to the vicious record of crime thus exhibited and either allow it to bear too strongly on the present charge or to take the proof of it as justifying a condemnation irrespective of the accused's guilt of the present charge." 1A Wigmore on Evidence, sec. 58.2, p. 1212 (Tillers rev. 1983). See also Fischer v. State, 226 Wis. 390, 402, 276 N.W. 640 (1937).
Thus the information known to jurors Relyea and Walsted was of a nature so prejudicial that it could not have been admitted as evidence at trial. Under the established practice of the federal court system, a juror who is aware of a defendant's prior criminal record is presumed to be prejudiced and should be excused for *285cause.1 In Marshall v. United States, 360 U.S. 310 (1959), seven of the jurors had read newspaper articles during the trial reporting the defendants' two previous felony convictions. Each of the seven told the judge that he would not be influenced by the news articles, that he could decide the case only on the evidence in the record, and that he felt no prejudice against the defendant as a result of the articles. The United States Supreme Court ordered a new trial, noting that the jurors had been exposed "to information of a character which the trial court ruled was so prejudicial that it could not be directly offered as evidence. The prejudice to the defendant is almost certain to be as great when that evidence reaches the jury through news accounts as when it is a part of the prosecution's evidence. ... It may indeed be greater for it is then not tempered by protective procedures." Id. at 312-313.
I propose that this court adopt the Marshall rule. I conclude that, had the two jurors in this case made full disclosure at the voir dire, they would have been subject to challenge for cause and the trial court should have excused them. This court has said that "because it preserves the appearance as well as the reality of an impartial trial, it is a good rule for the trial judge to honor challenges for cause whenever [the judge] may reasonably suspect that circumstances outside the evidence may create bias on the part of the challenged juror." Kanzenbach v. S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., 273 Wis. 621, 627, 79 N.W.2d 253 (1956). The trial court should have excused jurors who were aware of the defendant's criminal record which would not have been admissible at trial.
*286At a minimum, under the Wyss case, if a juror's "correct response to the question would have provided a valid basis for a challenge for cause,"2 the defendant has been prejudiced and a new trial is required.3
In this case, although both jurors in all honesty thought they could be fair, it should be conclusively presumed, as a matter of law, that there was a substantial possibility that jurors Relyea and Walsted were influenced by the extrajudicial information. Because these jurors could have been challenged for cause based on the highly prejudicial nature of the informa*287tion they possessed, I conclude that a new trial is required.
For the reasons set forth, I dissent.

 Britz v. Thieret, 940 F.2d 226, 231 (7th Cir. 1991). See also James J. Gobert, Jury Selection 7.16 (1993 Cum. Supp.).

 This is the McDonough test. McDonough Power Equipment, Inc. v. Greenwood, 464 U.S. 548 (1984). See Wyss, 124 Wis. 2d at 726. The Wyss court concluded that McDonough set forth too stringent a standard and apparently adopted a standard more favorable to the moving party. 124 Wis. 2d at 728-729.

 Beyond this test, Wyss sets forth a variety of standards for determining the prejudicial effect of the lack of juror candor in various ways: " [I]t is more probable than not that under the facts and circumstances surrounding the particular case, the juror was biased against the moving party," 124 Wis. 2d at 726; "the party seeking the new trial . . . must prove bias or prejudice," 124 Wis. 2d at 727; "the chief consideration ... is whether the defendant was prejudiced," 124 Wis. 2d at 727; "the movant has the opportunity to demonstrate actual bias or, in exceptional circumstances, that the facts are such that bias is to be inferred," 124 Wis. 2d at 729; "bias may be inferred from surrounding facts and circumstances," 124 Wis. 2d 730; the court must inquire as to whether there was "a showing of bias or prejudice as to require a new trial," 124 Wis. 2d at 725, or whether the lack of response "resulted in probable prejudice to the movant," 124 Wis. 2d at 727; the court must also determine whether "the prospective juror 'has expressed or formed an opinion, or is aware of any bias or prejudice in the case,'" 124 Wis. 2d at 730.