06-1304 U.S. v. Nettles

Listen to this article

It is not per se prejudicial to try a defendant in the same courthouse that he is charged with attempting to destroy.

“In his brief, Nettles does not point to any actual prejudice, as he does not identify anything in the record that would indicate any given juror had been exposed to pretrial publicity. Further, he acknowledges that the pretrial publicity in this case was not nearly as pervasive as in other cases in which motions for transfer were denied. Instead, he seems to rely on the idea of presumed prejudice, stating that ‘juror[s] sitting for a week or more in a building which the government argued was intended to be destroyed by a huge explosion and fire, killing most or all of the persons who worked therein, including jurors, would inevitably have their judgment clouded by that fact.’ Appellant’s Br. at 14.

“To be sure, the argument that jurors’ impartiality would be affected by the fact they sit in the very building that was targeted would indeed be compelling in some instances. However, in this particular case, the alleged facts simply do not compel a finding that, as a matter of law, jurors were prejudiced. As noted above, Nettles’s attempted crime was a failure and had a zero percent chance of success given the FBI’s involvement. Further, given the improbability of this crime ever coming to fruition, we find that the potential of a juror thinking ‘it could have been me,’ would have been just as likely for any juror in any federal courthouse. Admittedly, the facts of this case were enough to convince the prior panel that neither a judge from the Northern District of Illinois, nor a judge from the Seventh Circuit, should hear this case. However, as recorded statements by Nettles reveal, Nettles admitted his desire to kill judges, but not jurors, inside the courthouse. Had Nettles stated that he wished to kill jurors, perhaps our decision would be different.”

Affirmed.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Keenan, J., Martin, J.