Court Opinion

ID: 9465944
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:00:58.508673+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:27.846959
License: Public Domain

MESKILL, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in the result. Because I dissented in United States v. Barnes, 604 F.2d 121 (2d Cir. 1979), I wish to record separately my views regarding the district court’s conduct of the voir dire in this case.
In Barnes we were asked to review a “cluster of decisions” 1 rendered by the trial judge, sua sponte, in connection with the voir dire examination of prospective jurors. These decisions included the refusal to disclose or inquire into the names, addresses, “communities,”2 ethnic backgrounds and religious backgrounds of the prospective jurors. All independent investigation of the prospective jurors was expressly prohibited. The jury that was eventually selected was sequestered. On appeal, the defendants argued that the cumulative effect of these decisions was to deny them the ability to exercise meaningfully their right of peremptory challenge and that this deprivation mandated reversal. The majority rejected this argument, premising its decision on the “basic rule” that “a trial judge’s discretion will be upheld unless a defendant has been precluded from obtaining an impartial jury,” at 138, and concluding:
[W]hen questioning can be deemed fair— when a jury can be deemed free of bias — a trial judge’s decision as to the conduct of the voir dire will be upheld.
As long as there is some questioning as to identifiable issues connected in some way with persons, places, or things likely to arise during the trial, an appellate court faced with a cold record should be satisfied that justice has been done.
As long as a defendant’s substantial rights are protected by a voir dire designed to uncover bias as to issues in the cases and as to the defendant himself, then reasonable limitations on the questioning should not be disturbed on appeal.
At 139 and 140. The majority went on to conclude that only “the essentials of the case should be the subject of inquiry” on the voir dire — “[i]f that demand is satisfied, then so will have been the rights of the parties.” At 143. I disagreed with the majority then, and I disagree with it now. Nonetheless, Barnes is the law of this Circuit, and we are bound by it.
Under Barnes, Perry clearly is not entitled to prevail. Whereas Barnes and his co-defendants could not discover the names, addresses, “communities,” ethnic backgrounds or religious backgrounds of the prospective jurors, and could not independently investigate the prospective jurors, Perry was given the name of each juror, as well as the juror’s town of residence (if outside New York City) or borough of residence (if inside New York City), as well as the name of any town or borough resided in within the past five years. Perry did not ask for, and does not argue that he should have been given, either the specific addresses or ethnic and religious backgrounds of the prospective jurors; he argues only that he should have been told the “community” in which the prospective jurors resided. Perry was not prohibited from independently investigating the prospective jurors. The jury in Barnes was sequestered; the jury here was not. To state the differences between the cases is to make obvious why Perry is not entitled to reversal.
*1053Even if my dissent in Barnes represented the law of this Circuit, however, Perry would not be entitled to prevail. Although “it is the normal and better practice to provide to the government and the accused a list of prospective jurors and their addresses,” United States v. Barnes, supra, at 172 (Meskill, J., dissenting), citing ABA Standards, Trial by Jury § 2.2 (1968) & Commentary at 60-61, and although I am not at all clear why the trial judge in this case declined to inquire as to the prospective jurors’ “community,” I cannot conclude on this record that the “due administration of justice” was interfered with, Pointer v. United States, 151 U.S. 396, 409, 14 S.Ct. 410, 28 L.Ed. 208 (1894), or that “the essential demands of fairness” were not satisfied, Aldridge v. United States, 283 U.S. 308, 310, 51 S.Ct. 470, 75 L.Ed. 1054 (1931). Here, Perry was given the name of each prospective juror. With a minimum of effort he would likely have secured the specific.addresses of the prospective jurors. Given this, Perry’s complaint that he should have been told the “community” of each prospective juror’s residence rings hollow indeed. That Perry might have exercised a peremptory challenge based on information that he did not know but probably could have found out does not mean that the district court’s conduct of the voir dire was a “system for the empanelling of a jury that pre[v]ent[ed] or embarr'asse[d] the full, unrestricted exercise” of the right to peremptory challenge. Pointer v. United States, supra, 151 U.S. at 408, 14 S.Ct. at 414, St. Clair v. United States, 154 U.S. 134, 148, 14 S.Ct. 1002, 38 L.Ed. 936 (1894).
Neither do I believe that the admission of evidence of Perry’s possession of cocaine subsequent to the conspiracy requires reversal. Even if the admission of evidence of Perry’s possession of cocaine at the time of his arrest constituted error under Fed.R. Evid. 404(b) and 403, it was, given the nature of that evidence and the trial judge’s instructions to the jury, harmless error. See United States v. Quinto, 582 F.2d 224, 235 (2d Cir. 1978); United States v. Corey, 566 F.2d 429, 432 (2d Cir. 1977).
For these reasons I concur in the result announced today.

. See United States v. Barnes, supra, at 174 (Meskill, J., dissenting).

. On the voir dire, the prospective jurors were required to disclose in which of the counties of the Southern District they lived.