Court Opinion

ID: 9465940
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:00:44.860468+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:27.598787
License: Public Domain

TONE, Circuit Judge, concurring.
Although I joined in the Arciniega opinion and have no doubt that case was correctly decided on its facts, I now think the rule we announced there, 574 F.2d at 933, goes too far by requiring a showing of actual prejudice. The time when the jury is deliberating is indeed “the most delicate time of all,” as the United States Attorney said in stating his reasons for favoring sequestration in the case at bar. It is the time of greatest danger that a troubled juror may be tempted to seek outside information or even advice, and the serious impropriety of such an act makes it less likely that it will be disclosed later. That danger is increased when the trial is receiving media coverage that makes such outside information or advice readily available. The danger of jury tampering will also probably be greater at that point in the trial, especially if it becomes the general rule not to sequester jurors. Therefore, I think separation of the jury during deliberation should be the exception in criminal trials. With a little advance planning, either the necessity for overnight sequestration can be avoided or it can be carried out with a minimum of inconvenience to jurors.
The standard I would substitute for actual prejudice, absent exigent circumstances or a stipulation for separation, both of which were present in Arciniega, is serious risk of prejudice. This standard would recognize that actual prejudice is likely to be difficult to prove, since proof usually depends on a wrongdoer’s admission; and it would have the prophylactic effect of requiring that a serious risk of prejudice be avoided.
The case before us is one in which allowing the jury to separate during deliberations carried with it a serious risk of prejudice. The defendant’s aborted guilty plea had been covered in news stories and, in view of the media’s interest in the trial, was likely to be reported again in recapitulation stories on submission of the case to the jury, as in fact it was.
The rule I propose is not the rule of this circuit at present, however. Given the present rule requiring actual prejudice, I concur in the result.
I also agree that the law as it now stands does not require jurors to be interrogated individually about their exposure to prejudicial publicity occurring during the course of the trial. When such publicity does occur, however, I believe the better way to assure that the jurors have not been exposed to it will usually be individual interrogation in camera followed by a report by the judge to counsel and the defendant.
I concur in the judgment for the reasons stated above.