Court Opinion

ID: 9492153
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:33:23.428409+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:08.380717
License: Public Domain

RENDELL, Circuit Judge,
Concurring:
I join in the thorough analysis, and result reached, by my colleague, but write briefly only to offer an additional practical reason as to why the purported cure by the District Court judge was not an adequate fix.
I have great faith in jurors, but think it asks too much to expect them to cast aside the court’s initial instruction that reasonable doubt is incapable of definition and is based on what you feel inside, when later they are told its more analytic underpinnings. It strikes me as an exceedingly difficult if not impossible task.
If students of film were told before viewing a film that there are no set rules for assessing a film and they should trust their heart and soul, then later, after viewing it, they are told to comment on it using a “reasoned” approach, will they not cling nonetheless to the impressions formed throughout the viewing based on their emotional reaction? I think we are naive if we think not.
Reasonable doubt is difficult enough without the confusion evident on this record. Can we trust that a juror who adheres to the judge’s instruction and determines in her heart and soul that the defendant is probably guilty will be able to perform the mental gymnastics to replace all she has observed and felt with a reasoned weighing . of the government’s case (assuming she has made the effort to do so in the face of initial instructions that the later definition will be of little help)? I am dubious.
While it is true that a trial court’s guidance as provided in most preliminary instructions will pale in significance as compared to the final dictates given, that is not the case if the particular instruction guides the jury’s perceptions and observations as much as, or even more than, their ultimate decision making.
Further, I do not agree with our dissenting colleague that our holding that this particular miscue was not cured poses any threat to the concept of cure beyond the limits of this unique fact pattern.