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Thursday, April 27, 2006

Courts - Federal judge bans juror checks

"Judge bans juror checks" is the headline to a story today in the Chicago Tribune. Some quotes:

Prosecutors and defense attorneys can't so much as run a Google search on prospective jurors in the upcoming corruption trial of former mayoral aide Robert Sorich, according to a federal judge's ruling Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge David Coar's decision is only the latest development in an ongoing struggle over how much federal judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys should know about jurors' backgrounds before a trial begins.

The issue took center stage during deliberations in the trial of former Gov. George Ryan, when the six-month case narrowly avoided a mistrial over revelations that several jurors concealed arrest or conviction records.

For now, federal judges and attorneys in Chicago are sorting out, on a case-by-case basis, whether they should perform criminal background checks, even as U.S. District Chief Judge Charles Kocoras and U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald develop separate policies to address the issue.

The result so far is an uneven approach among judges and attorneys to jurors' pasts.

U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve indicated Friday that she is inclined to permit criminal history checks of jurors in next year's fraud trial of former Hollinger chief Conrad Black.

Defense lawyers raised the issue, saying they want to avoid the juror controversies that plagued Ryan's trial.

"I don't disagree with you that we should do that," St. Eve said. ***

Assistant U.S. Atty. Patrick Collins requested background checks. Collins, who was the lead prosecutor in Ryan's case, said he was seeking the checks to prevent the kind of problems that plagued the trial.

Days before Ryan was convicted of corruption April 17, two jurors were dismissed from deliberations after the Tribune reported they had failed to reveal a history of arrests or convictions.

Two alternates were brought in, and the jury had to begin deliberations all over again.

"We are not trying to be Big Brother," Collins said Wednesday. "The reality is I can't imagine news outlets will not be doing searches of these jurors in [Sorich's] case."

Coar responded that, historically, federal courts in this district have not checked up on jurors. He cautioned that conducting the checks would present a "delicate, problematic issue" and said he was concerned about digging into the backgrounds of jurors without some valid reason for doing so.

For background, see this ILB entry from March 28th, titled "Juror problems in federal trial of former Illinois Governor Ryan; thoughts on Indiana jurors."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 27, 2006 09:04 AM
Posted to Courts in general