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Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 342 Filed 10/13/21 Page13o0f17
into account the fact that it is the parties, rather than the Court, who
have a full grasp of the nuances and the strength and weaknesses of
the case... Experience indicates that in the majority of situations
questioning by counsel would be more likely to fulfill this need [for
information upon which to base the intelligent exercise of
peremptory challenges] than an exclusive examination in general
terms by the trial Court.
United States v. Ible, 630 F.2d 389, 395 (Sth Cir. 1980).
In this case, voir dire conducted solely by the Court will interfere with the intelligent
exercise of peremptory challenges. Attorneys have been working on this case well over a year.
They are most likely to know the areas of questioning that must be explored to further uncover
the prejudices that are most pertinent to the evidence that will be presented at trial. They also act
with an awareness that they will have to base peremptory challenges on the juror's answers.
Permitting attorney-conducted voir dire in addition to Court voir dire will therefore maximize the
information obtained in voir dire.
B. The Extensive Pretrial Publicity Related to This Case Necessitates Attorney-
Conducted Voir Dire
The possibility of prejudice in this case due to the extensive pretrial publicity is so great
that specific voir dire questions by counsel are necessary. In United States v. Davis, the Fifth
Circuit held that the district court erred in not undertaking a more thorough examination of panel
members exposed to publicity (“[W]here the nature of the publicity as a whole raised a
significant possibility of prejudice, the cursory questioning by the court was not enough.”). A
district court is required, under Davis, to determine what each juror may have heard or read and
how it may have affected his attitude toward the trial, and whether any juror’s impartiality had
been destroyed. /d; see also Silverthorne v. United States, 400 F.2d 627, 638 (9th Cir. 1968)
(“[I]n the absence of an examination designed to elicit answers which provide an objective basis
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DOJ-OGR-00005218
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| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00005218.jpg |
| File Size | 718.7 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 94.3% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 2,140 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 16:57:33.571809 |