Court Opinion

ID: 9564543
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:02:50.09014+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:29.400466
License: Public Domain

BERNSTEIN, Vice Chief Justice
(dissenting).
I cannot agree with the majority that the trial court acted within its discretion in refusing to inquire of the jurors, upon request of defendant, whether they read a certain newspaper article. The article in question appeared in the Phoenix Gazette the evening after the jury was selected and in the Arizona Republic the following morning. The article in the Arizona Republic stated in part:
“ * * * His first experience in court Monday was dramatically termed a mistrial before a jury could be selected.
“The mistrial resulted when a woman on the jury panel, in answer to a question by Judge Warren L. McCarthy, accused Hilliard of raping her daughter two years ago. The judge had asked the panel if anyone knew the defendant.”
The statements alluded to in this article were considered by the trial judge to be so prejudicial when made that he declared a mistrial. The following day when a new jury was being selected, the trial judge again considered it so prejudicial that he dismissed on voir dire all who had heard of the previous mistrial. There is no doubt that this article was prejudicial to the defendant if read by the jurors. Especially is this true when the newspaper article attributed the words “raping” her daughter to the woman juror when she actually said that he “attacked" her daughter. The cases cited in the majority opinion as supporting the decision do not do so. In State *138v. DeZeler, supra, there was no finding that the newspaper articles were prejudicial. In fact the court stated:
“ * * * it is aiSo to he noted that the newspaper articles which were submitted to the trial court as special exhibits were not so inflammatory, distorted, or misleading that the trial court, in the light of its cautionary instructions, could not have found in the exercise of a sound discretion that a reading thereof by any juror would be nonprejudicial.” 230 Minn. 39, 51, 41 N.W.2d 313, 321.
In Kitts v. State, supra, the court, in relation to the newspaper articles there in question stated:
“ * * * An examination of them discloses that they contained simply a factual report of the proceedings without falsification, unfair or inflammatory elaboration, or distortion. In that connection, we find no reason for granting a new trial.” 153 Neb. 784, 795, 46 N.W.2d 158, 165.
The theory behind these cases appears to be that if the news article is one which fairly states the facts as adduced at the trial or “puffs up” the evidence the jurors will not be prejudiced since they were present at the trial and could determine the truth or falsity of the reporting.
If an article contains material which is not admissible as evidence and is unfair or inflammatory to the defendant, the jury would be prejudiced upon reading it in the newspaper. In the latter instance the trial court, in order to insure the defendant a fair and impartial trial, should question the jury to determine if such prejudicial matter was brought to the jurors’ attention simply because a defendant has no other way to find out whether the jurors followed the court’s admonition.
Here, the majority, in relying upon the cases of Kitts and DeZeler, infers that the newspaper articles in the present case are not of a prejudicial nature. The majority fails to recognize that the facts stated in the article were prejudicial and so declared in granting the mistrial and in the removal of jurors on voir dire. If such a statement was prejudicial when made and heard by the trial jurors, does it not follow that it was prejudicial when it appeared and was exaggerated in the newspapers? The statements made by the Supreme Court of the United States in Marshall v. United States, 360 U.S. 310, 79 S.Ct. 1171, 1173, 3 L.Ed.2d 1250, should be controlling:
“We have here the exposure of jurors to information of a character which the trial judge ruled was so prejudicial 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 *139evidence, [citing case] It may indeed be greater for it is then not tempered by protective procedures.”
The majority, however, base their opinion upon two premises: (1) the presumption that the jurors will not violate their trust based on the court’s admonitions, and (2) there is no evidence that any juror read the particular article. Therefore, the majority conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to question the jury on the matter.1 That one or more of the jurors probably did read the article in question is a reasonable inference to be drawn in light of human conduct and behavior:
“Although there was no direct evidence in this case that the newspaper articles were read by any juror, it is obvious that one or more of the jurors probably did. In this connection the following statement from the opinion in Meyer v. Cadwalader, supra, [49 F. 36], is much in point. ‘It is idle to say that there is no direct evidence to show that the jury read these articles. They appeared in the daily issues of leading journals, and were scattered broadcast over the community. The jury separated at the close of each session of the court, and it is incredible that, going out into the community, they did not see and read these newspaper publications. * * *Briggs v. United States, 6 Cir., 221 F.2d 636, 639.
It is a fundamental rule of criminal law “that a defendant in a criminal case is entitled to be tried by jurors who ‘should determine the facts submitted to them wholly on the evidence offered in open court, unbiased and uninfluenced by anything they may have seen or heard outside of the actual trial of the case.’ ” Briggs v. United States, supra. He is entitled to the protective shield afforded by the rules of evidence and the Rules of Criminal Procedure. The defendant was denied a fair and impartial trial by being refused the opportunity of discovering whether any of the jurors had read the prejudicial newspaper article. In this respect the trial court abused its discretion.
The judgment should be reversed and remanded for a new trial.
STRUCKMEYER, C. J., concurs in the foregoing dissent.

. Xet the opinion itself indicates that it is probable that a juror had read the article when it stated: “Thus, in this background, the court emphasized by. his admonitions to the entire jury not to read any further newspaper accounts or to he influenced by them.” In order to be influenced by them, the jurors must have read the newspaper accounts. The non sequitur of the majority’s opinion on this point is obvious.