Court Opinion

ID: 9498685
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:25:16.504141+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:00.600810
License: Public Domain

KING, Circuit Judge,
dissenting in part:
This appeal presents an important Sixth Amendment issue, and I write separately because it is being wrongly decided. The Sixth Amendment entitles an accused to the sacrosanct right of a fair trial before an impartial jury, a mandate that “goes to the fundamental integrity of all that is embraced in the constitutional concept of trial by jury.” Turner v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 466, 472, 85 S.Ct. 546, 13 L.Ed.2d 424 (1965). And when a jury’s deliberations have been contaminated by an improper external influence — even if that influence relates to the Bible of England’s first Stuart King — -public confidence in our judicial system is undermined and the jury’s verdict must not be enforced.
By its opinion today, the panel majority erroneously concludes that Robinson is not even entitled to an evidentiary hearing on the improper influence issue, because the state court’s ruling thereon was not an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law as determined by the *369Supreme Court. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). The majority reaches its conclusion, however, through its own misapplication of the relevant Supreme Court precedents, which obscures the unmistakably clear line that divides those decisions. The decisions distinguished by the majority—Parker v. Gladden, 385 U.S. 363, 87 S.Ct. 468, 17 L.Ed.2d 420 (1966), Turner v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 466, 85 S.Ct. 546, 13 L.Ed.2d 424 (1965), and Remmer v. United States, 347 U.S. 227, 74 S.Ct. 450, 98 L.Ed. 654 (1954)—involved a single phenomenon: an external influence upon a juror that carries the potential to sway him against the defendant. On the other hand, the decision on which the majority primarily relies—Tanner v. United States, 483 U.S. 107, 107 S.Ct. 2739, 97 L.Ed.2d 90 (1987)—relates only to an internal influence that impairs a juror’s physical or mental ability to properly function.
The facts here — that the court bailiff provided a Bible to a deliberating juror, who then read aloud to his fellow deliberating jurors a passage concerning the Biblical mandate of “an eye for an eye”— plainly concern an external influence, i.e., one which carries the serious potential of swaying the jury towards a sentence of death. A contrary decision (deeming such conduct to be an internal influence only) demeans the Bible and those who believe in it, and constitutes “an unreasonable application of[ ] clearly established” Supreme Court precedent. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1).
Robinson’s allegations thus satisfy the requirements of § 2254(d)(1), and he is entitled to an evidentiary hearing to prove them. First, an external influence that has the potential to sway a juror against the defendant must be deemed presumptively prejudicial. Robinson has thus “allege[d] facts which, if proved, would entitle him to relief.” Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 312, 83 S.Ct. 745, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963). Next, because the state court did not find facts regarding the improper influence issue, Robinson has plainly satisfied the Townsend factor that “the material facts were not adequately developed at the state-court hearing.” Id. at 313, 83 S.Ct. 745. Finally, the district court committed an error of law in ruling that the law students’ affidavits were insufficient to warrant an evidentiary hearing, and it-thus abused its discretion in that respect.
I would grant Robinson an evidentiary hearing on the improper influence issue, and I write separately to dissent on that aspect of this appeal.1
I.
Robinson’s factual allegations concerning the Bible provided to the jurors (the “Bible claim”) are contained in the law students’ affidavits, which were presented to the state court and made a part of Robinson’s habeas corpus petition. According to the affidavits — which we must accept as true — a juror requested a Bible from the bailiff during the jury’s deliberations on whether Robinson should be accorded the death penalty. Upon receiving this unusual request, the bailiff provided a Bible to the juror, without either the approval or notification of the court. The juror then proceeded to read aloud to other jurors a passage concerning the Biblical mandate of “an eye for an eye,” in an effort to convince the jury to recommend a death sentence. Ultimately, the jury recommended that Robinson be sentenced to death.
On January 4, 1999, the state court which ruled on Robinson’s motion for appropriate relief (the “MAR court”) con-*370eluded that the foregoing allegations were insufficient to warrant an evidentiary hearing because, even assuming their truth, the provision and use of the Bible did not constitute “extraneous, prejudicial information” before the jury. After the Supreme Court of North Carolina denied discretionary review of the MAR court’s ruling, Robinson filed a § 2254 petition in the Eastern District of North Carolina asserting, inter alia, the Bible claim. As relevant here, the district court denied Robinson’s request for an evidentiary hearing on the Bible claim, deeming the law students’ affidavits insufficient to warrant such a hearing. We thereafter granted Robinson a certificate of appealability on the Bible claim.
The question before us today is whether Robinson is entitled to an evidentiary hearing on the Bible claim. As the panel majority correctly observes, because Robinson was diligent in pursuing the Bible claim in state court, § 2254(e)(2) does not govern our analysis. Instead, Robinson must satisfy the requirements set forth in Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 83 S.Ct. 745, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963). Under Townsend, Robinson must first “allege[] facts which, if proved, would entitle him to relief.” Id. at 312, 83 S.Ct. 745. This mandate requires Robinson to demonstrate that the MAR court’s ruling “was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States,” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1), and that the error in the MAR court’s ruling had a “ ‘substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury’s verdict,’ ” Fullwood v. Lee, 290 F.3d 663, 679 (4th Cir.2002) (quoting Brecht v. Abrakamson, 507 U.S. 619, 637, 113 S.Ct. 1710, 123 L.Ed.2d 353 (1993)). Next, Robinson must establish one of the six Townsend factors. See Townsend, 372 U.S. at 313, 83 S.Ct. 745.2 Even if Robinson satisfies these requirements, however, we may vacate the district court’s denial of an evi-dentiary hearing only if its ruling constituted an abuse of discretion. See Conner v. Polk, 407 F.3d 198, 204 (4th Cir.2005).
A.
Pursuant to the foregoing, we must first assess whether the MAR court’s ruling “involved an unreasonable application of[ ] clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). As explained below, the distinction between external and internal jury influences has been clearly delineated by the Supreme Court, and a decision that Robinson’s allegations supporting the Bible claim implicate an internal influence — rather than an external influence — is an unreasonable application of that law.
The panel majority makes two fundamental mistakes in its application of the relevant Supreme Court precedents. First, it obscures the clear principle that emerges from Parker v. Gladden, 385 U.S. 363, 87 S.Ct. 468, 17 L.Ed.2d 420 (1966), Turner v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 466, 85 S.Ct. 546, 13 L.Ed.2d 424 (1965), and Remmer v. United States, 347 U.S. 227, 74 *371S.Ct. 450, 98 L.Ed. 654 (1954), by artificially splitting those decisions into two categories. Specifically, the panel majority interprets Parker and Turner as involving “extraneous prejudicial information [that] ... bears on a fact at issue,” which had been introduced to the jury in contravention of the defendant’s confrontation rights. It then construes Remmer as concerning “an outside influence upon the partiality of the jury” that violated the defendant’s right to an impartial jury. Id. As explained below, the majority’s distinction is unsupported by those decisions, each of which (not merely Remmer) involved an external influence that carried the potential to sway the juror against the defendant.3
Second, the majority incorrectly defines the internal influences at issue in Tanner v. United States, 483 U.S. 107, 107 S.Ct. 2739, 97 L.Ed.2d 90 (1987), as “influences internal to the deliberations process.” The multiple examples of internal influences provided by the Tanner Court, however, concern a phenomenon much more concrete and distinct: influences that impair a juror’s mental or physical capacity.
Given these errors — both of which obfuscate the Court’s clear holdings in the Parker, Turner, Remmer, and Tanner decisions — it is no surprise that the panel majority ultimately concludes that the line between external and internal jury influences “is a fine one, and one that may even blur upon close inspection.” A fair reading of those decisions, however, presents an unmistakably clear divide between external and internal influences. And when those decisions are properly applied, the Bible claim unquestionably relates to an improper external jury influence.
1.
The first step in our analysis under § 2254(d)(1) is to identify the relevant “clearly established Federal law.” . That phrase, of course, “refers to the holdings, as opposed to the dicta, of [the Supreme] Court’s decisions as of the time of the relevant state-court decision.” See Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 362, 412, 120 S.Ct. 1495, 146 L.Ed.2d 389 (2000). As explained below, although the panel majority correctly identifies Parker, Turner, Remmer, and Tanner as the relevant precedents, it fails to recognize and apply the Court’s clear holdings in those decisions.
In its Parker decision, the Supreme Court held that Parker’s Sixth Amendment rights had been contravened when the “bailiff assigned to shepherd the sequestered jury” remarked in the jury’s presence, “ ‘Oh that wicked fellow [petitioner], he is guilty,”’ and“ ‘If there is anything wrong [in finding petitioner guilty] the Supreme Court will correct it.’ ” 385 U.S. at 363-64, 87 S.Ct. 468. The panel majority characterizes Parker solely as a decision in which the Court held that Parker’s confrontation rights were violated because the bailiffs comments constituted “extraneous prejudicial information [that] ... bears on a fact at issue.” This characterization, however, is unsupported by Parker’s facts and rationale. Although the bailiffs statement that Parker was guilty could be construed as extraneous “evidence” that “bears on a fact at issue,” his remark that the Supreme Court would correct any error in finding him guilty clearly had no evidentiary relevance. Rather, the bailiffs comment was simply an effort on his part to sway the jury to find Parker guilty. The majority’s conclusion is also belied by the Parker Court’s analysis. Although the Court referenced Parker’s right to confrontation, it did so only after referring to his right to an impartial jury. See Parker, 385 U.S. at 364, 87 S.Ct. 468. *372Furthermore,- the Court characterized the bailiffs statements as unconstitutional “private talk, tending to reach the jury by outside influence,” not as extraneous evidence. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). Finally, and most importantly, the Supreme Court itself has characterized Parker as a ease involving externar influences. See Tanner, 483 U.S. at 117, 107 S.Ct. 2739.
Whereas Parker at least bore traces of an “extraneous prejudicial information” ease, the Turner decision, which the panel majority also characterizes as such a case, solely concerned an external influence. In Turner, the Court held that the defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights were contravened where the sequestered jury was “placed in [the] charge” of two deputy sheriffs who were also the “principal witnesses for the prosecution.” 379 U.S. at 467, 85 S.Ct. 546. In their role as the jury’s caretakers, the deputies drove the jurors where they needed to go, “ate with them, conversed with them, and did errands for them.” Id. at 468, 85 S.Ct. 546. Crucially, the constitutional problem was not with any information that the deputy sheriffs had imparted to the jurors — indeed the Court operated under the assumption that no such information-sharing had occurred. See id. at 473, 85 S.Ct. 546. Rather, the problem was the “relationship” between the deputy sheriffs and the jury, “one which could not but foster the-jurors’ confidence in those who were their official guardians during the entire period of the trial.” Id. at 474, 85 S.Ct. 546. The Court’s concern was that, as a result of the jury’s dependence on the deputies during the trial, their testimony against the defendant would carry greater weight with the jury than it otherwise would. The relationship thus constituted an external influence with the potential to sway the jurors against the defendant, irrespective of any information that might have been conveyed to the jurors by the deputies.4
The panel majority contrasts Parker and Turner with Remmer, which concerned an effort to bribe a juror, and which the majority correctly characterizes as involving an external influence. See 347 U.S. at 228-29, 74 S.Ct. 450. Yet, whether it was the bailiffs remarks impugning the defendant in Parker, the relationship of confidence between the jurors and the deputy sheriffs in Turner, or the attempt to bribe the juror in Remmer, the same concern animated the Court’s decisions: that an external influence might sway the jurors against the defendant.
In contrast to the improper external influences on a jury exemplified in Parker, Turner, and Remmer, internal jury influences are illustrated in Tanner. There, the Court held that the Sixth Amendment did not require an evidentiary hearing at which jurors could testify that a fellow juror was under the influence of alcohol and illegal drugs during Tanner’s trial. See 483 U.S. at 126-27, 107 S.Ct. 2739. In *373so ruling, the Court expressly distinguished the external influences present in cases such as Parker and Remmer from the internal influence at issue in Tanner. See id. at 117, 107 S.Ct. 2739. The Court explained that the distinction between an external influence, on the one hand, and an internal influence, on the other, depends on the “nature” of the influence, id., and it approvingly observed that lower courts had treated influences affecting “the physical or mental [ Competence of a juror” as internal influences, id. at 118, 107 S.Ct. 2739. It also provided several examples of internal influences — in addition to the intoxication at issue in that case — including psychological disorders, insanity, sickness, lack of sleep, hearing impairment, and consumption of poorly prepared food, all of which constitute a physical or mental impairment. See id. at 118-19, 122, 107 S.Ct. 2739.
The panel majority draws from Tanner the following definition of internal influences: those “internal to the deliberations process.” Because the majority fails to elaborate, we are left to guess at the meaning- of this vague and circular definition. Whatever it means, however, the majority’s definition finds no support in Tanner and fails td encompass the numerous examples of internal influences provided by the Court in that decision. If by influences “internal to the deliberations process” the panel majority means those that only affect the deliberations process, its definition describes external influences better than internal influences. The external influences recognized by the Court— such as attempted bribery or improper association with the prosecution’s witnesses — come from without but impact only the juror’s perception of the defendant, an influence that focuses directly on the final decision a jury must make. In contrast, internal influences — such as intoxication,- lack of sleep, and psychological disorders — affect not only a juror’s ability to rationally and neutrally deliberate on a defendant’s fate, but also a juror’s general ability to perceive, process, and comprehend the world around him. Perhaps the majority, by the phrase “internal to the deliberations process,” means to indicate only those influences that originate in the deliberations process. If so, neither internal nor external influences would fall within its definition. Whether the influence is an improper association with the prosecution’s witnesses, an attempted bribe, sickness, or intoxication, it originates outside the jury room.
There is only one reasonable definition to draw from the Tanner Court’s distinction between external and internal influences, its instructions that the distinction turns on the “nature” of the influence, and the numerous examples it provides of internal influences: If the “nature” of the influence is that it impairs the juror’s physical or mental ability to function effectively, it is an internal influence. Internal influences thus stand in stark contrast to their external counterparts, which come from without and carry the potential to bias the juror against the defendant.
Importantly, this distinction between external and internal jury influences was carefully drawn by the Supreme Court well before the MAR court’s 1999 ruling. It therefore constitutes “clearly established Federal law” within the meaning of § 2254(d)(1). See Williams, 529 U.S. at 412, 120 S.Ct. 1495.
2.
We must next assess whether a decision that the facts alleged by Robinson constitute an internal rather than an external influence is an “unreasonable application” of the law clearly established in Parker, Turner, Remmer, and Tanner. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). A decision is an “unreasonable application” of clearly established Supreme Court precedent if the “state court identifies the correct governing legal principle from th[e] Court’s decisions but unreasonably applies that principle to the *374facts.” Wiggins v. Smith, 539 U.S. 510, 520, 123 S.Ct. 2527, 156 L.Ed.2d 471 (2003). As we have recognized, a state court determination may be set aside under this standard if the court “ ‘was unreasonable in refusing to extend the governing legal principle to a context in which the principle should have controlled.’ ” Booth-El v. Nuth, 288 F.3d 571, 575 (4th Cir.2002) (quoting Ramdass v. Angelone, 530 U.S. 156, 166, 120 S.Ct. 2113, 147 L.Ed.2d 125 (2000) (plurality opinion)). The mandate of § 2254(d)(1), however, is not satisfied by our independent determination that the state court’s application was erroneous; we must also find such application to be unreasonable. See Williams, 529 U.S. at 411, 120 S.Ct. 1495. Nevertheless, where, as here, the relevant principles are well-defined, the range of reasonableness is narrower. See Yarborough v. Alvarado, 541 U.S. 652, 664, 124 S.Ct. 2140, 158 L.Ed.2d 938 (2004) (“[E]valuating whether a rule application was unreasonable requires considering the rule’s specificity. The more general the rule, the more leeway courts have in reaching outcomes in case by case determinations.”). Given the clarity of the distinction between an external and an internal influence on a jury, a decision that Robinson’s allegations constitute an internal influence- — rather than an external influence — easily satisfies the “clearly unreasonable” standard.
The panel majority concludes that the provision and reading of the Bible is “not unlike” the internal influences described in Tanner. It thus concludes that a decision that Robinson’s allegations constitute an internal influence would not be unreasonable. In so ruling, the majority fails to reference the Tanner Court’s admonition that internal influences are those affecting the “physical or mental [ Jcompetence of a juror.” 483 U.S. at 118, 107 S.Ct. 2739. And it declines to analogize to the numerous examples of internal influences provided by the Court in Tanner. See id. at 118-19, 122, 107 S.Ct. 2739. Instead, the majority concludes — without citation to Tanner — that reading from the Bible is “not unlike” an internal influence because it “invites the listener to examine his or her own conscience from within,” a conclusion that finds no support in Tanner and bears no resemblance to any of the examples of internal influences provided there. That the majority fails to proceed by analogy to the examples provided in Tanner is not surprising, for it would certainly be shocking for a court to compare a Bible reading to intoxication, insanity, exhaustion, psychological disorder, or food poisoning. See id. at 118-19, 122, 107 S.Ct. 2739 (listing these and others as examples of internal influences). Yet, in labeling the provision and reading of the Bible as an internal influence, the majority has likened a Bible reading to such impairments. Not only is such a conclusion empirically false, it should be offensive to those who consider the Bible to be sacred.
In regard to whether Robinson’s allegations constitute an external influence, i.e., an influence that comes from without and carries the potential to sway a juror against the defendant, the panel majority suggests that neither the bailiffs provision of the Bible nor the reading of the Bible in the jury room could have influenced the jurors against Robinson. Indeed, although the majority is hesitant to compare Bible reading to intoxication or food poisoning, it is not troubled by comparing the Bible to “aspirin [or] a pen.” In so doing, the majority ignores the fact that the Bible is an authoritative code of morality — and even law — to a sizable segment of our population. As in Turner, it would be “blinking reality” not to recognize the profound influence that quotations from the Bible could carry in the jury room. 379 U.S. at 473, 85 S.Ct. 546. Moreover, the specific passage read aloud — those concerning the mandate of “an eye for an eye” — bear directly on the severity of punishment to be imposed for a criminal act and expressly require the death penalty as punishment for murder. .The majority therefore concludes — alarmingly—that a divine command to condemn a defendant to death carries less potential to influence *375a juror than the bailiffs comments in Parker or the jurors’ relationship with the deputy sheriffs in Turner. I can neither make nor accept that conclusion.
This case is made all the more egregious by the fact that the Bible was provided to the juror by the trial court’s bailiff. The panel majority characterizes the bailiffs actions as an “innocuous intervention,” but, as the Court explained in Parker; “[t]his overlooks the fact that the official character of the bailiff — as an officer of the court as well as the state — beyond question carries great weight with a jury.” 385 U.S. at 365, 87 S.Ct. 468. Furthermore, because of the bailiffs capacity as an officer of the court, it is likely that a juror would impute his actions to the court itself, leaving an impression that the court approved of the jury’s use of the Bible.
Taken together, the juror’s reading of the “an eye for an eye” passage, and the appearance that this reading was sanctioned by the trial court, plainly constitute an external influence with the potential to sway the jury against Robinson. The MAR court’s decision to the contrary was therefore an “unreasonable application” of Supreme Court precedent. 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1).
B.
In order to “allege[] facts which, if proved, would entitle him to relief,” as required by Townsend, 372 U.S. at 312-13, 83 S.Ct. 745, Robinson must also demonstrate that the error in the MAR court’s ruling had a “ ‘substantial and injurious effect or influence in determining the jury’s verdict.’ ” Fullwood, 290 F.3d at 679 (quoting Brecht, 507 U.S. at 637, 113 S.Ct. 1710). Because Robinson’s allegations give rise to a rebuttable presumption of prejudice, they also satisfy this requirement.
In Remmer, the Supreme Court announced that, “[i]n a criminal case, any private communication, contact, or tampering, directly or indirectly, with a juror during a trial ... is, for obvious reasons, deemed presumptively prejudicial.” 347 U.S. at 229, 74 S.Ct. 450. We have had occasion to apply Remmer and elaborate on the circumstances in which its presumption of prejudice arises. In Stockton v. Virginia, we held that the presumption of prejudice arose where the proprietor of a restaurant at which the jury ate lunch during deliberations told jurors that “they ought to fry the son of a bitch.” 852 F.2d 740, 741, 744 (4th Cir.1988); see also Fullwood, 290 F.3d at 681-82 (concluding that presumption of prejudice arose where defendant alleged that juror’s husband had attempted to convince her to vote for death penalty). . We explained in Stockton that, in order to invoke the presumption, a defendant must “establish both that an unauthorized contact was made and that it was of such a character as to reasonably draw into question the integrity of the verdict.” 852 F.2d at 743. In so ruling, we explicitly distinguished such outside contacts from Tanner-like situations involving “juror impairment or predisposition.” Id. at 744.
Robinson’s allegations plainly satisfy the two-step rule set forth in Stockton. First, the bailiffs furnishing of the Bible to the juror was an unauthorized contact with the jury. Second, such contact “reasonably draw[s] into question the integrity” of the jury’s recommendation that Robinson be sentenced to death. Stockton, 852 F.2d at 743. As discussed above, the Bible is one of the most influential texts known to our culture and represents, to many, God’s explicit commands. Furthermore, as in Stockton, the passage read aloud in the jury room “bore on the exact issue— whether to impose the death penalty — that the jurors were deliberating at that time,” and thus carried a serious potential for prejudice. Id. at 746; see also McNair v. Campbell, 416 F.3d 1291, 1307-08 (11th Cir.2005) (concluding that introduction of Bible into jury room gives rise to presumption of prejudice). The presumption *404of prejudice, of course, “is not one to be casually invoked.” Stockton, 852 F.2d at 745. The circumstances of this case, however, more than justify its invocation.
C.
Finally, in order to demonstrate entitlement to an evidentiary hearing, Robinson must establish one of the Townsend factors, and we must find that the district court abused its discretion in denying him such a hearing. Robinson satisfies each of these requirements. First, in concluding that Robinson’s allegations did not entitle him to relief, the MAR court denied Robinson a hearing on the Bible claim without finding any facts. Thus Robinson satisfies at least the fifth Townsend factor, that “the material facts were not adequately developed at the state-court hearing.” 372 U.S. at 313, 83 S.Ct. 745. Second, the district court committed an error of law in denying Robinson an evidentiary hearing on the basis that the law students’ affidavits were insufficient to warrant an eviden-tiary hearing, for it is settled that allegations alone are sufficient to warrant a hearing where, taken as true, they entitle a petitioner to relief. See id. at 312, 83 S.Ct. 745; Walker v. True, 399 F.3d 315, 327 (4th Cir.2005). By definition, such an error of law constitutes an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Ebersole, 411 F.3d 517, 526 (4th Cir.2005).
II.
Pursuant to the foregoing, Robinson is entitled to an evidentiary hearing on the Bible claim, and I would vacate and remand for such further proceedings as may be appropriate.
With respect, I most strenuously dissent.

. I concur in Part I of the panel majority's opinion, which sets forth the general facts underlying this appeal, and in Part II .A, the disposition of Robinson's Enmund claim.

. The six Townsend factors are:
(1) the merits of the factual dispute were not resolved in the state hearing; (2) the state factual determination is not fairly supported by the record as a whole; (3) the fact-finding procedure employed by the state court was not adequate to afford a full and fair hearing; (4) there is a substantial allegation of newly discovered evidence; (5) the material facts were not adequately developed at the state-court hearing; or (6) for any reason it appears that the state trier of fact did not afford the habeas applicant a full and fair fact hearing.
Townsend, 372 U.S. at 313, 83 S.Ct. 745.

. To be sure, the panel majority concedes that "to analyze Remmer is to impliedly analyze Parker and Turner." That point, however, is inconsistent with the majority's analysis of those authorities, which interprets and applies Parker and Turner as involving extraneous information and Remmer as concerning an outside influence.

. No.t only does the panel majority erroneously mischaracterize Parker and Turner as solely concerning "extraneous .prejudicial information that bears on a fact at issue in the case,” it cre'ates from whole cloth the requirement that such extraneous information “bear on a fact at issue in the case.” There is no such requirement in any .of the Supreme Court decisions discussed by the majority. The majority seeks to ground its new requirement in Supreme Court precedent by equating eviden-tiary relevance to prejudice, suggesting that only extraneous information relevant to a fact at issue can prejudice a defendant. This suggestion is, put most simply, entirely without legal basis. To take an example from Parker, the statement by the bailiff that " ’[i]f there is anything wrong [in finding petitioner guilty] the Supreme court will correct it,” was plainly prejudicial and, just as plainly, had no evidentiary relevance to an issue in the case. 385 U.S. at 363, 364, 87 S.Ct. 468. Of significance, the majority’s newly minted requirement — first appearing after its analysis of Parker and Turner — provides the sole basis on which it distinguishes those decisions.