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Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document620 Filed 02/25/22 Page15of21
judge, court personnel, and counsel; observations by other jurors, who “may report inappropriate
juror behavior to the court before they render a verdict”; and “impeach[ment] [of] the verdict by
nonjuror evidence of misconduct.” 483 U.S. at 127; see also Warger, 574 U.S. at 51 (“[A]
party’s right to an impartial jury remains protected despite Rule 606(b)’s removal of one means
of ensuring that jurors are unbiased.”). The Defendant cites in support the Supreme Court’s
decision in Pena-Rodriguez v. Colorado, but that case is unavailing to her position. There, the
Supreme Court held that “where a juror makes a clear statement that indicates he or she relied on
racial stereotypes or animus to convict a criminal defendant, the Sixth Amendment requires that
the no-impeachment rule give way in order to permit the trial court to consider the evidence of
the juror’s statement and any resulting denial of the jury trial guarantee.” 137 S. Ct. at 869.
Throughout the opinion, the Supreme Court took great care to hold that the “unique historical,
constitutional, and institutional concerns” intrinsic to a juror with racial animus do not attach to
other forms of juror misconduct. /d. at 868. In fact, it expressly contrasted the case of a juror
with racial animus to a juror that “ha[s] a personal experience that improperly influences her
consideration of the case,” as was at issue in Warger v. Shauers and as is alleged here. /d. at
869,
Third, even if the Court did consider Juror 50’s statements about what another juror said
during deliberations—which Rule 606 prohibits—the statements proffered by the Defendant do
not meet the threshold of “clear, strong, substantial and incontrovertible evidence that a specific,
nonspeculative impropriety has occurred.” Baker, 899 F.3d at 130. According to an article in
the Daily Mail, Juror 50 “revealed that he was not the only juror to share a story of sexual
abuse.” That sentence summarizes an unsworn and non-specific statement, which does not
identify the alleged misconduct or the juror in question with any particularity. It therefore falls
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Dates
Document Details
| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00009556.jpg |
| File Size | 732.7 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 94.4% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 2,184 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 17:48:00.607402 |