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Extracted Text (OCR)
Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 604 _ Filed 02/17/22 Page3of6
here, the misstatement concerned an issue so central that it is likely the juror, had he answered
accurately, would have been disqualified for cause or disqualified through a peremptory
challenge. And the impact to a fair trial from the seating of such a juror is even more threatened
when the issue hidden by a potential juror is, as some reports have indicated, raised by that person
during deliberations. Requiring proof of willfulness would make the post-trial inquiry too
subjective and thereby dilute the obligation to be accurate in the first place. Such a rule could tip
the balance in decisions by favoring findings that would avoid the expense and inconvenience of
having to retry the case. In our memorandum, we would address analogous areas of the law
which we believe will lead this Court to conclude that a finding of willfulness should not be
required.
Te High-profile criminal cases, including ones that involve public outcry about
unpopular defendants accused of heinous crimes, have been the stage for some of the most
important decisions safeguarding the constitutional right to a fair trial. See, e.g., Sheppard v.
Maxwell, 384 U.S. 333, 363 (1966) (finding in a second-degree murder case for the alleged
bludgeoning death of a pregnant wife that because extensive pre-trial publicity had emphasized
evidence and opinions that tended to incriminate the defendant and that ongoing publicity during
the trial had revealed matters discussed outside the presence of the jury, the defendant was
entitled to a new trial as a result of the “inherently prejudicial publicity which saturated the
community....”); Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U.S. 717, 728 (1961) (finding where there was continued
adverse publicity fostering a strong prejudice against defendant who had allegedly confessed to
six murders in a small area, which caused two-thirds of the jury to admit before hearing any
testimony to possessing a belief in his guilt, that defendant must be retried). These are the cases
DOJ-OGR- 00008968
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Document Details
| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00008968.jpg |
| File Size | 701.6 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 94.4% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 2,071 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 17:40:05.783384 |