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Extracted Text (OCR)
Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document657_ Filed 04/29/22 Page 31 of 45
responding to a note from a deliberating jury is only required to answer the particular inquiries
posed.”); see also United States v. Parker, 903 F.2d 91, 101 (2d Cir. 1990) (“The trial judge is in
the best position to sense whether the jury is able to proceed properly with its deliberations, and
[s]he has considerable discretion in determining how to respond to communications indicating
that the jury is experiencing confusion.”). The jury was free to send a clarifying or further note
following the Court’s instruction.
By contrast, the Defendant failed to propose a legally accurate response for the jury. Her
proposed responses to the note on the day it was received and the following morming were
erroneous. At the time the Court received the note and discussed it with counsel, the Defendant
first proposed that the answer to the note’s question was simply “no” because, she argued, a
return flight is for the purpose of returning home, “not for the purpose of illegal sexual activity.”
Trial Tr. at 3128-30. But the Court could not respond “no” to an ambiguous question. /d. at
3138. Moreover, the Defendant eventually conceded the principle that assistance with a return
flight home could aid and abet a trip that was for the purpose of illegal sexual activity. See id. at
3136. Alternatively, the Defendant requested that if the Court were to refer the jury to the
charge, that it direct the jury to lines 14 to 17 of Instruction No. 21, which instructed on
“significant or motivating purpose.” /d. at 3131. But it was unclear that those particular lines
addressed the jury’s question, and the Court’s decision to refer the jury to the entirety of
Instruction No. 21 encompassed those lines.
The following day, although the jury had not sought further clarification, the Defendant
took another pass at proposing an additional response to the note. She requested a three-
paragraph supplemental instruction that referenced elements of Counts Two and Four. See Dkt.
31
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Extracted Information
Dates
Document Details
| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00010397.jpg |
| File Size | 691.5 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 93.8% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 2,066 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 17:58:23.499201 |