Court Opinion

ID: 9717084
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:57:35.608728+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:51.107957
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE SIMON, also dissenting: Although due process does not require a new trial every time a juror has been placed in a potentially compromising situation, what it does mean is “a jury capable and willing to decide the case solely on the evidence before it, and a trial judge ever watchful to prevent prejudicial occurrences and to determine the effect of such occurrences when they happen.” (Emphasis added.) (Smith v. Phillips (1982), 455 U.S. 209, 217, 71 L. Ed. 2d 78, 86, 102 S. Ct. 940, 946.) Thus, when the possible bias of a juror is raised, a defendant is entitled to a hearing on the issue at which he is allowed to participate meaningfully. (455 U.S. 209, 216-17, 71 L. Ed. 2d 78, 85-86, 102 S. Ct. 940, 945-46.) Because the investigation of the juror’s possible bias fell far short of these standards here, and because substantial evidence of bias appears on the record, I would reverse the conviction. The trial judge apparently recognized that he had some obligation to make inquiry of the juror. He initially called upon the juror who “purportedly or allegedly went to *** the same church” as the mother of one of the victims to identify herself. Mrs. Trigleth answered by stating “that didn’t make any difference to me about that.” Rather than probing the basis of her relationship with the victim’s mother, the judge simply asked the juror several times in a leading fashion to reaffirm that her acquaintance with the mother did not influence her. The only other questions the judge asked were whether she recognized the name when he read the list of witnesses and at what point the juror became aware that she knew the victim’s mother; on the latter question he accepted an inconclusive answer. The colloquy could have lasted only seconds. This interrogation of Mrs. Trigleth was deficient in two respects. First, as Chief Justice Clark points out, the trial judge failed to explore the facts which may have established the juror’s bias. For all the judge knew, the juror and the victim’s mother could have been close friends. By failing to inquire in detail into their relationship, the court ignored the fact that “[determining whether a juror is biased or has prejudged a case is difficult, partly because the juror may have an interest in concealing his own bias and partly because the juror may be unaware of it.” (Smith v. Phillips (1982), 455 U.S. 209, 221-22, 71 L. Ed. 2d 78, 89, 102 S. Ct. 940, 948 (O’Connor, J., concurring).) The difficulties inherent in exposing actively concealed or subconscious biases could hardly have been overcome by simply accepting and leading the juror into repeating her conclusory statement that she was not influenced by her relationship with the mother without determining what that relationship was. This court’s prior cases involving similar allegations of juror bias demonstrate that more extensive questioning was imperative. For example, in People v. Davis (1983), 95 Ill. 2d 1, a juror advised the court during the course of trial that a friend of his was related to someone murdered in an incident with which the defendant may have been connected. The subsequent interrogation disclosed the nature of his relationship with the friend, the friend’s feelings about the killing, and the fact that the juror had not been personally acquainted with the victim; it also explored the questions of possible embarrassment to the juror from sitting on the jury and whether the incident would have any effect on his deliberations. Similarly, in People v. Hyche (1979), 77 Ill. 2d 229, the court learned after the jury had been sworn that one juror’s husband was a nephew of the man the defendant was charged with killing. Inquiry revealed that the juror’s personal contacts with the deceased were limited to five or six meetings at family gatherings, that her relationship with the deceased would not influence her, and that her family had urged her not to sit on the jury. By contrast, the court in the instant case made no effort to uncover the extent of the relationship between Mrs. Trigleth and the victim’s mother or other facts relevant to the question of bias. The court, for example, did not determine at precisely what point during the trial the juror became aware that she knew the mother or why she failed to bring it to the judge’s attention promptly. The second reason that the interrogation of the juror was inadequate is because defense counsel was not permitted to participate. Following Mrs. Trigleth’s final reiteration that her acquaintance with the victim’s mother made no difference, the court stated that the jury would be dismissed. Although the majority opinion does not mention it, the record reveals that defense counsel then asked whether the “[djefense [was] going to have any questions on this case,” apparently before the jury was actually excused. The court’s response was to repeat the order that the jury be dismissed. The effective refusal of the trial judge to let defense counsel question the juror was error. In Smith v. Phillips, the Supreme Court found that determinations of juror bias can properly be made at a hearing “ ‘with all interested parties permitted to participate.’ ” (See 455 U.S. 209, 216, 71 L. Ed. 2d 78, 85, 102 S. Ct. 940, 945, quoting Remmer v. United States (1954), 347 U.S. 227, 230, 98 L. Ed. 654, 656, 74 S. Ct. 450, 451.) The correct procedure, allowing defense interrogation of a potentially biased juror, has been employed by the trial courts of this State in similar cases. (See, e.g., People v. Davis (1983), 95 Ill. 2d 1; People v. Harris (1979), 74 Ill. 2d 472; see also United States v. Billups (4th Cir. 1982), 692 F.2d 320.) The failure to permit defense counsel here to interrogate the juror was an abuse of discretion. The majority acknowledges that the trial judge’s abbreviated inquiry “could have, and possibly should have, been more searching.” (111 Ill. 2d at 403.) The majority opinion nonetheless concludes that no abuse of discretion occurred because the burden of establishing prejudice rested with the defendant and that burden could have been carried, at least in theory, by forcing a proper investigation on the court at a hearing on the post-trial motion. As I view the majority opinion, it both underestimates the importance of a prompt judicial inquiry into a juror’s bias and misreads the record in sanguinely assuming that the judge would have permitted further questioning of the juror at a post-trial hearing. Obviously, in cases in which a juror’s potential bias comes to light only after the conclusion of the criminal proceedings, the hearing to determine whether such bias actually exists must necessarily occur in the context of a post-trial motion. However, common sense rejects the notion that resolution of the issue should also await a post-trial hearing when the possibility of prejudice is revealed, as here, prior to the dismissal of the jury. In the latter situation, an immediate inquiry is appropriate. (See, e.g., People v. Davis (1983), 95 Ill. 2d 1; People v. Hyche (1979), 77 Ill. 2d 229; People v. Harris (1979), 74 Ill. 2d 472.) An immediate investigation, quite apart from the saving of judicial resources, best serves to correctly resolve the claim of bias. As noted above, I also disagree with the court on another score: the speculative suggestion that defendant could have subpoenaed Mrs. Trigleth to testify at a post-trial hearing (111 Ill. 2d at 403). Examination of relevant portions of the record, some of which are not excerpted in the majority opinion, leads me to the same conclusion defense counsel could have reached, namely, that no such testimony would have been permitted. Upon defense counsel’s suggestion that a mistrial should be granted, the judge stated in part: “This Court will state for the record that in an unusual proceeding, I think probably the most unusual I have ever engaged in in all my years as a lawyer and as a Judge, I did bring back the entire jury and I had not dismissed them and the lady that identified herself was under oath and said for the record that the facts that came to light after the case, sometime after the case had commenced, in earnest, didn’t influence her whatsoever. Accordingly, this Court felt that going beyond that regarding that issue is not — would not have been proper, would have invaded the sanctity of the jury and jury deliberation. Mr. Porter talked to and did, in fact request and have his constitutional right to a jury. That lady was under oath. She was not on trial, Mr. Porter was.” (Emphasis added.) This statement makes clear that the trial judge believed that he had already, in a “most unusual” proceeding, gone above and beyond the call of duty in his questioning of the juror and that more searching inquiry would have been improper as an invasion of the “sanctity” of the jury. I can only surmise that the judge’s opinion that Mrs. Trigleth could not be subjected to further interrogation without compromising jury deliberations or putting her “on trial” would not have been any different at a post-trial hearing and that any effort to question her at that point would have been rejected. Thus, counsel can hardly be faulted for failing to subpoena her. The defendant only had the burden of establishing the juror’s “disqualifying state of mind” (People v. Cole (1973), 54 Ill. 2d 401, 413), not, as the majority states, that “he was prejudiced by this juror’s service” (111 Ill. 2d at 404) or that the outcome of the trial was affected. (See 54 Ill. 2d 401, 411 (harmless-error rule does not apply to claim that the jury was not impartial).) Although the actions of the trial judge severely limited his opportunity to make such a demonstration, I believe, with Chief Justice Clark, that there is sufficient evidence of bias on this record to require a new trial. At the beginning of voir dire, the judge read a list of potential witnesses but omitted to instruct the jurors to state whether they recognized any of the names. Although it is understandable that Mrs. Trigleth could have initially missed or failed to recognize the name of Marilyn Green’s mother in that list, at the point in the trial when she did recognize that someone she knew was involved, she had a duty to so inform the judge. Inasmuch as she thought her acquaintance with the victim’s mother was sufficiently important to disclose that information to another juror, Mr. Torres, her failure to similarly inform the trial judge can hardly be dismissed as innocuous or merely unthinking. Rather, her apparent suppression of this relationship from the judge makes her impartiality suspect. Coupled with this failure to disclose, the evidence that upon entering the jury room and prior to any deliberations Mrs. Trigleth said that “as far as she was concerned, they could vote guilty right then” was, in my view, sufficient for the defendant to carry his burden of establishing the juror’s bias. It is no answer to say, as the majority does, that the defendant is at fault for not making the right moves. The question of juror bias, unlike a mere evidentiary irregularity, goes to the heart of the judicial process. Whether or not the defendant exercised every available option, a guilty verdict in a case in which the process itself has been tainted cannot be affirmed. The decision to uphold the conviction here debases the fundamental right to a “fair trial by a panel of impartial, ‘indifferent’ jurors” (Irvin v. Dowd (1961), 366 U.S. 717, 722, 6 L. Ed. 2d 751, 755, 81 S. Ct. 1639, 1642). Because that right is the hinge upon which our entire system of criminal justice turns, I am compelled to dissent. JUSTICE GOLDENHERSH joins in this dissent.