Court Opinion

ID: 9480955
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:03:47.088049+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:01.176704
License: Public Domain

WILKINSON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
The majority would reverse this conviction because the district court failed to inquire on voir dire if any juror would give special credence to the testimony of a law enforcement officer.
I agree with the majority that this question should have been asked. I cannot agree, however, that the failure to pose this single question requires that we reverse the result of an entire trial where there has been no suggestion that any juror harbored any bias with respect to this case.
I.
In my view, the holding of reversible error represents an overreaction to what occurred at trial. In McDonough Power Equipment, Inc. v. Greenwood, 464 U.S. *810548, 104 S.Ct. 845, 78 L.Ed.2d 663 (1984), the Supreme Court applied harmless error analysis to a juror’s inadvertent failure to answer a voir dire question accurately. It emphasized that “[a] trial represents an important investment of private and social resources, and it ill serves the important end of finality to wipe the slate clean simply to recreate the peremptory challenge process because counsel lacked an item of information which objectively he should have obtained from a juror on voir dire examination.” Id. at 555, 104 S.Ct. at 850. Accordingly, the Court held that “to obtain a new trial in such a situation, a party must first demonstrate that a juror failed to answer honestly a material question on voir dire, and then further show that a correct response would have provided a valid basis for a challenge' for cause.” Id. at 556, 104 S.Ct. at 850.
Although McDonough was a civil case, its reasoning is equally applicable to criminal cases, and several circuits have applied its analysis in criminal cases to hold harmless jurors' nondisclosure of information on voir dire. See United States v. Aguon, 851 F.2d 1158, 1170 (9th Cir.1988); Baca v. Sullivan, 821 F.2d 1480, 1482-83 (10th Cir.1987); United States v. O’Neill, 767 F.2d 780, 785 (11th Cir.1985); United States v. McMahan, 744 F.2d 647, 652 (8th Cir.1984). In addition, the fact that McDonough involved an incorrect answer to a question and the ease at bar involves a failure to ask a voir dire question is immaterial to the analysis since both cases resulted in incomplete information on which to base peremptory challenges.
On the facts before us, the trial judge failed to ask a question he should have asked. However, appellants have made no attempt to show that “a correct response” from any of the jurors “would have provided a valid basis for a challenge for cause.” The facts here present an even better case for application of the harmless error doctrine than did those in McDonough. There, if the juror had answered the voir dire question completely and accurately, the fact of an injury to the juror’s son from an exploded tire would have been revealed, and a peremptory challenge in that products liability case almost surely would have been exercised to strike the juror. Here, if the trial judge had asked the proper question, all the jurors may well have indicated that they had no bias in favor of the testimony of law enforcement officers, and defendant would not even have suffered the loss of the effective use of a challenge. That defendants may well have suffered no loss whatsoever illustrates why they should be required to demonstrate some semblance of juror bias before the verdict is reversed and the case is returned for a retrial which is seldom as fresh or even as reliable as the original.
I understand the difficulty experienced by defense counsel who is required to show prejudice to a client from a trial judge’s failure to ask on voir dire a question to which counsel may never learn the answer. In some cases, this difficulty may be resolved by presuming prejudice from the failure to ask a question. The majority suggests this is a proper case for presuming prejudice, but I disagree. Even if the district judge had asked prospective jurors the proposed question, a perfunctory denial of bias (or silence) would, as the majority acknowledges, have been the most likely response. The judge asked a similar opinion question with respect to illegal drugs and it elicited no response.
Jurors, for a variety of reasons, frequently conceal their biases during voir dire examinations. See, e.g., V. Hans and N. Vidmar, Judging the Jury, 68-69 (1986). Problems with juror self-disclosure stem from many causes, including inartful questioning of jurors at voir dire. See, e.g., Suggs and Sales, Juror Self-Disclosure in the Voir Dire: A Social Science Analysis, 56 Ind.L.J. 245, 258-61 (1981). To identify potential juror bias, attorneys are often urged to avoid opinion questions that press jurors, often futilely, to expose themselves as prejudiced before their peers and instead to suggest questions that cause jurors to reveal facts and experiences from which bias may be better assessed. See F. Bailey and H. Rothblatt, Successful Techniques for Criminal Trials, 177 (2d ed. 1985). In this case, for example, when the trial judge *811asked the venirepersons a fact-specific question on drug abuse, one of them disclosed that he was a recovering alcohol and cocaine addict.
Here, the trial judge remarked that he had asked all the “factual questions” presented to him. His remark suggests that if counsel had proposed questions in a manner designed to elicit more factual information on law enforcement connections from the venire, the trial judge may well have asked them. The questions which the trial judge did ask during voir dire demonstrate that he made an effort to probe the jury for bias. While the trial judge did not ask if jurors would give special credence to the testimony of law enforcement officers, he did ask: “Is there any member of this jury panel that is employed or works with or in any law enforcement capacity?” Also, he concluded voir dire by asking a more general question intended to uncover any additional biases not revealed by the earlier questions: “Now considering all of the questions I have already asked you, is there any reason why any one of you could not sit on the jury and render a fair and impartial verdict based upon the evidence presented here in the courtroom and the instructions on the law as will be given you by the court?”
Whatever inclination any juror may have had to accord special credence to the testimony of law enforcement officers was likely cured by the trial judge’s jury instruction. As noted by the majority, the judge instructed the jury:
[Y]ou as jurors are the sole judges of the credibility of the witnesses and the weight that their testimony deserves. You may be guided by the appearance and the conduct of the witness, or by the manner in which the witness testifies, or by the character of the testimony given.
You should carefully scrutinize all the testimony given, the circumstances under which each witness has testified, and ever[y] matter in evidence which tends to show whether a witness is worthy of belief. Consider each witness’ intelligence, motive and state of mind, and demeanor and manner while on the stand. Consider the witness’ ability to observe the matters as to which he has testified, and whether he impresses you as having an accurate recollection of those matters.
Consider also any relation each witness may bear to either side of the case, the manner in which each witness might be affected by the verdict, and the extent to which, if at all, each witness is either supported or contradicted by other evidence in the case.
While the majority laments that these instructions did not cover the precise question proposed for the venire, the instructions plainly admonished the jury to consider in a sober and impartial light the testimony of each witness in the case. A jury instruction can go far in ensuring that any error the trial judge may have committed on voir dire will not result in prejudice to the defendant. See King v. Lynaugh, 850 F.2d 1055, 1061 (5th Cir.1988) (judge’s charge to the jury renders harmless the failure to ask voir dire questions); United States v. Espinosa, 771 F.2d 1382, 1405 (10th Cir.1985) (questions coupled with instructions to the jury adequate to protect defendant from prejudice); United States v. Caggiano, 667 F.2d 1176, 1178 (5th Cir.1982) (voir dire questions posed by the court combined with cautionary instructions adequately protected the defendant).
II.
“ ‘[A] defendant is entitled to a fair trial but not a perfect one,’ for there are no perfect trials.” Brown v. United States, 411 U.S. 223, 231-32, 93 S.Ct. 1565, 1570, 36 L.Ed.2d 208 (1973) (quoting Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 135, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 1627, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968)). There is every reason to believe that the jury here took its obligations seriously and no reason to believe that impermissible bias on the part of any juror influenced the outcome of this case. Our task is to ensure fairness, not to demand perfection. Because fairness was not compromised by the district *812judge’s failure to pose a single question on voir dire, I respectfully dissent.