Criminal Procedure — anonymous juries

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U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

Criminal

Criminal Procedure — anonymous juries

The defendant failed to show that her jury was anonymous.

“The only evidence Harris points to in arguing that the jury was anonymous are the judge’s statements before con-ducting voir dire. Our analysis, and Harris’s appellate argument, is hindered by the fact that Harris’s trial counsel did not object and create a fuller record of what information, if any, was withheld from the parties and/or the public. But, because Harris’s counsel relies only on the portion of the judge’s voir dire statements quoted in full above, we will review that same portion to determine whether or not she can show the jury was anonymous. There are three reasons we find Harris has not met her burden. First, we do not believe the judge’s statements, when examined alone, demonstrate that the jurors’ names were unknown to the parties. The judge did not tell the jurors that their names were being kept from the parties, but instead said their names were not being stated in open court because ‘to protect people’s privacy, we try to refer to jurors by numbers now’ and ‘we do this just to protect your privacy, which is a very important consideration in the modern world.’ While Harris’s argument that these statements demonstrated that the jury was anonymous is one possible conclusion to draw, we believe it just as, if not more, likely that a rational juror would understand these comments to mean that the jurors’ names were being kept from the public. There is nothing in the judge’s statement that indicates the jurors’ information was being kept from the parties. So we decline to draw the inferences Harris asks us to based on these two statements by the judge. To do so would be to defeat the purpose of Harris’s burden under the plain error standard, which requires her to show an error ‘so obvious that the trial judge and prosecutor were derelict in countenancing it.’ Christian, 673 F.3d at 708 (internal quotation omitted). Such an error is not present from these statements alone.”

Affirmed.

13-1741 U.S. v. Harris

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Murphy, Herndon, JJ., Williams, J.