By: dmc-admin//July 19, 2010//
Criminal Procedure
Juror questions
Although a judge should not permit jurors to directly ask questions of witnesses, the error does not require reversal of the jury verdict.
"For us to reverse, however, Sykes must establish that jurors asked improper questions or that their questions precipitated some other impropriety in the trial, and that the improper questions affected the jury's verdict. Sykes cannot establish either. Sykes points to the juror's question to the judge about his absence from the courtroom and argues that this caused the judge to cast him in a poor light and 'disparage[] . . . the merits of the defense case.' We disagree. The court's answer to the juror's question was entirely appropriate. The judge correctly explained that Sykes was not present because he invoked his constitutionally protected right of self-representation and then chose not to attend his trial. The judge also explained that Sykes had standby counsel and had instructed his lawyer not to attend the trial. Lest there be any confusion about any inferences from Sykes's absence, the judge quickly added that the jury was not to hold Sykes's absence against him and that it must determine Sykes's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt based only on the evidence before it. To the extent the court's comment cast Sykes in a poor light (and we do not think it did), the court corrected any possible improper impression almost immediately with this remedial instruction to the jury. See United States v. Curry, 538 F.3d 718, 728 (7th Cir. 2008) ('This court repeatedly has held that jurors are presumed to follow limiting and curative instructions unless the matter improperly before them is so powerfully incriminating that they cannot reasonably be expected to put it out of their minds.' (internal quotation marks omitted))."
Affirmed.
08-2558 U.S. v. Sykes
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Grady, J., Sykes, J.