Court Opinion

ID: 9469683
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:46:26.415339+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:30.509571
License: Public Domain

ESCHBACH, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Notwithstanding the well reasoned majority opinion, I respectfully dissent.
In my view there was more than a “reasonable possibility” that the so-called “Mexican Mafia” report influenced the jury. The suspicion, planted in the jurors’ minds early in the trial, that defendant Bruscino was a member of something called the “Mafia,” a word which connotes violent, sinister, conspiratorial, and habitual criminal activity, quite possibly colored their perception of all the evidence which followed. The taint caused by such an accusation is difficult to dispel, and the fact that the report stated that authorities had been unable to find evidence of a substantial nature to verify the charge may have seemed typical to the jurors. The risk is high that the jury believed that individuals are often publicly known as “Mafiosi,” but authorities are unable to substantiate the charge because people are afraid to talk.
Through the newspaper article, at least some of the jurors learned that all of the other alleged conspirators had pleaded guilty. This was especially damaging to Kell. The jurors may have reasoned that if the government was correct in their identification of all those other conspirators, as evidenced by their guilty pleas, the government was probably right about Kell as well. The repeated admonitions of the trial judge to disregard press accounts were not heeded. If active disregard of such instructions, the importance of which is attested to by the frequency with which they are given, does not constitute grounds for a mistrial, the rule against such exposure has little force.
While the damage caused by the documents at issue could possibly have been alleviated by strongly worded curative instructions, there of course was no practical opportunity for such instructions in this case. Having served as a federal trial judge for twenty years, it is impossible for me to conclude under the circumstances of this case that the documents which improperly found their way into the jury room did not influence the verdict. While I do not fault the able trial judge who made every effort to provide a fair trial, I am forced to conclude that it was an abuse of discretion to deny Bruscino and Kell a new trial. Exactly what occurred which resulted in the documents entering the jury room and being considered by the jury may never be known. However, the crucial issue to me is the existence of a reasonable possibility that the material influenced the verdict.