Court Opinion

ID: 9473605
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:33:54.067521+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:37.266150
License: Public Domain

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
The threshold issue presented by this case is whether the district court met its obligation to impanel an impartial jury. Notwithstanding the district court’s broad inquiry into the backgrounds of the prospective jurors, under the circumstances of this case its questioning did not sufficiently test prospective jurors for bias or partiali*684ty. See United States v. Jones, 722 F.2d 528, 529 (9th Cir.1983).
The indictment on which Toomey was tried charged him with conspiring to import heroin, traveling in interstate and foreign commerce to facilitate the conspiracy and unlawfully using a communications facility. As the majority has pointed out, Toomey’s defense to the conspiracy charge was expected to be that “although he knew the transactions [at issue] involved narcotics, he did not know or agree that they would be imported into the United States____” Maj. Op. at 683. It was therefore apparent prior to trial that Toomey would admit to having participated in narcotics transactions abroad. In order to determine whether Toomey’s admitted participation in drug-related activity would create problems of bias or impartiality in prospective jurors, appellant’s counsel drafted and submitted question 49. The district court declined to ask the question, however, concluding that it was not necessary in light of other more general questions that it had posed to prospective jurors.
In concluding that the district court’s decision not to ask the question did not constitute an abuse of discretion, the majority misconceives the nature and intent of appellant’s proposed inquiry. The majority reasons that since the district court inquired into the jurors’ abilities objectively to evaluate eviderce relating to investments generally, and foreign investments in particular, it did not err with respect to question 49. However, it is clear that question 49 was not directed toward identifying jurors who were biased against parties who engage in foreign investment. Rather, question 49 was intended to identify those jurors who would be unable to remain objective upon learning that the defendant was an admitted narcotics trafficker. Thus, the majority’s reliance on the district court’s inquiry into the area of foreign investment is, in my view, wholly misplaced.
In United States v. Jones, supra, we observed that there are “three instances in which there is a real possibility of prejudice and a consequent need for specific voir dire questioning.” 722 F.2d at 529. One of these involves cases concerning matters about which “either the local community or the population at large is commonly known to harbor strong feelings that may stop short of presumptive bias in law yet significantly skew deliberations in fact____” Id. at 529-30. We further concluded that when the matter sought to be explored on voir dire does not fall within one of the three recognized classes, then the party seeking to propound the inquiry must show that it is reasonably calculated to discover an actual and likely source of prejudice. Id. at 530.
There can be little question that narcotics trafficking is a topic about which prospective jurors may have feelings sufficiently strong to skew deliberations. Therefore, Toomey’s expected defense, that he was involved in the financing of international narcotics trafficking but did not expect the drugs to be imported into the United States, clearly falls into a category that gives rise to “a real possibility of prejudice and a consequent need for special voir dire questioning.” Id. at 529. However, even if appellant’s proposed inquiry did not fall within such a recognized category, it is readily apparent from the question itself that it was reasonably calculated to discover an actual and likely source of prejudice.
That the district court inquired generally into the prospective jurors’ attitudes with respect to the topic of narcotics does not, in my view, cure the threat of prejudice posed by the district court’s failure to ask question 49. Whether the prospective jurors were biased against admitted narcotics traffickers involves an inquiry that is significantly different from an inquiry into whether the fact that the trial involves narcotics would prevent a juror from acting impartially toward an accused. It is entirely possible that one whose feelings about narcotics are not sufficiently strong to render him biased against any person charged with a narcotics offense may nevertheless harbor feelings about admitted narcotics *685traffickers that rise to a level of actual bias.1
The Fifth Circuit addressed this precise issue in United States v. Conroy, 589 F.2d 1258 (5th Cir.1979). As here, defendant had been charged with conspiring to import narcotics. His principal defense, like Toomey’s, was to consist of a showing that although he had been involved in the procurement of narcotics abroad, he had neither known that the narcotics were destined for the United States nor intended such. In preparation for the district court’s voir dire, defendant submitted a question that was intended to determine whether his admitted participation in a narcotics transaction would give rise to juror prejudice.2 The district judge declined to ask the question.
In concluding that the district judge’s failure to ask the question did not constitute an abuse of discretion, the Conroy majority did not take the view that the court need not ask questions of the type proposed by the defendant. To the contrary, the majority reasoned only that the question, as it was phrased, would not have elicited the information that the defendant appeared to be seeking. The majority concluded that an affirmative response to the question would not necessarily have meant that the defendant’s admitted role in procuring the contraband would so influence a juror that an objective consideration could not be made of the critical question whether the defendant knew that the contraband was destined for the United States. Similarly, inasmuch as the defendant’s role in procuring the contraband was relevant to the crimes charged, the majority concluded that a negative response would not have been consistent with each juror’s obligation to decide the case on the evidence and instructions. Thus, the majority expressed the view that as the question was phrased, it could not uncover sources of juror prejudice.
Here, I do not read question 49 as ambiguously as the majority read the proposed question in Conroy. It is clear from the text of question 49 that Toomey’s counsel sought to specifically determine whether Toomey’s admitted involvement in foreign narcotics transactions “would so influence the jurors’ evaluation of the case that they would be unable to consider the critical issues of whether [he] agreed that the drugs would be brought to the United States and that he knew that the drugs would be brought to the United States.” See Maj. Op. at 683. Thus, the error in the Conroy question, if one existed, was corrected here. Moreover, the importance of the type of distinct inquiry made by Too-mey was emphasized by Judge Rubin in his dissent in Conroy. In disagreeing with the majority’s conclusion that the question requested by the defendant would not have been useful, Judge Rubin recognized that the prospect of juror bias against an admitted narcotic’s trafficker was significant:
*686Under these circumstances, it was critical for defense counsel to know whether [the defendant’s] admitted complicity in a plot to ship marijuana (which he claimed was directed at Canada rather than the United States) would prejudice any potential juror against him. The substance of the proposed question was calculated to elicit from potential jurors a clue as to whether they harbored any predispositon to convict [the defendant] merely because he was engaged in international marijuana dealing rather than because he was guilty of the precise crimes charged.
Id. at 1274.
Finally, Judge Rubin noted the overwhelming authority supporting the rule that “the trial judge may not refuse to charge a jury because the request is phrased inartfully____ If the substance of the request is clear, it is his obligation to give a correct charge.” Id. at 1275. To the extent that the majority relies on any purported imperfection in Toomey’s question, the authority Judge Rubin cites is dispositive.
In light of the high probability of juror prejudice against an admitted narcotics trafficker, and in light of the clear distinction between an inquiry into juror attitudes concerning narcotics generally and toward admitted narcotics traffickers in particular, I conclude that the district court’s decision not to inquire into the subject covered by question 49 constituted an abuse of discretion. Under the circumstances of this case, the error was prejudicial. Accordingly, I would reverse Toomey’s conviction and remand the matter for retrial.

. Nor am I persuaded that the district court’s questioning in the general area of narcotics can be read to embrace the issue of narcotics traffickers. The voir dire did not, in my view, prompt the jurors to consider their attitudes about admitted narcotics traffickers in addition to their attitudes about narcotics. Compare United States v. Allsup, 566 F.2d 68, 70 (9th Cir.1977) (where defendant-appellant had a right to have prospective jurors questioned about their attitudes concerning the insanity defense, district court’s vague and incomplete references to evidence of insanity and lack of mental capacity did not convey to jurors that they were to examine their attitudes about the insanity defense) with United States v. Carabbia, 381 F.2d 133, 137 (6th Cir.1967) (in prosecution of defendant, who was legitimately involved in wagering, for filing false Treasury Department form, district court’s failure to specifically inquire into jurors’ attitudes towards wagering not error where judge's reading of the indictment was sufficient to inform jurors that defendant was engaged in wagering and jurors stated that they felt no prejudice). Although it was clear from the voir dire that the case would involve narcotics, the voir dire is devoid of any reference to Toomey’s status as an admitted narcotics trafficker. Accordingly, there was no reason for the jurors to determine whether their attitudes towards admitted narcotics traffickers rose to the level of actual bias.

‘ The question read as follows:
Would the fact that [the defendant] was involved in procuring the marijuana prejudice you in any manner against [the defendant]?
589 F.2d at 1272.