U.S. v. Brown
| Decision Date | 01 May 2001 |
| Docket Number | 00-31042,TIMES-PICAYUNE,WDSU-TV,00-31179,HEARST-ARGYLE,00-31201,00-31069,00-31284,No. 00-30953,00-30953 |
| Citation | 250 F.3d 907 |
| Parties | (5th Cir. 2001) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. JAMES HARVEY BROWN, also known as Jim Brown; ALFRED FOSTER SANDERS, III, also known as Foxy Sanders; EDWIN W. EDWARDS, also known as The Governor; ROBERT A. BOURGEOIS, also known as Bob Bourgeois, DAVID JUDD DISIERE, RONALD R. WEEMS, also known as Ron Weems, Defendants-Appellees, v. THE TIMES PICAYUNE PUBLISHING CORPORATION; ASSOCIATED PRESS; CAPITAL CITY PRESS;TELEVISION, INC.; THE LOUISIANA PRESS ASSOCIATION, Appellants. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. JAMES HARVEY BROWN, Etc; ET AL, Defendants, JAMES HARVEY BROWN, also known as Jim Brown; EDWIN WASHINGTON EDWARDS, also known as The Governor; RONALD R. WEEMS, also known as Ron Weems, Defendants-Appellees, v. TIMES PICAYUNE PUBLISHING CORPORATION; CAPITAL CITY PRESS, the Advocate, Saturday and Sunday Advocate, the "News Media", Appellants. In Re: THEPUBLISHING CORPORATION; THE ASSOCIATED PRESS; CAPITAL CITY PRESS, INC., (The Advocate, Saturday and Sunday Advocate);TELEVISION INC. (); THE LOUISIANA PRESS ASSOCIATION, Petitioners, In Re:TELEVISION INC. (); CAPITAL CITY PRESS (The Advocate, Saturday and Sunday Advocate); THEPUBLISHING CORPORATION, Petitioners |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Appeals from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.
Petitions for Writ of Mandamus to the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.
Before JOLLY, JONES and SMITH, Circuit Judges.
By appeals or, in the alternative, petitions for a writ of mandamus, various "News Media",1 challenge measures used by the court to protect juror anonymity in a much-publicized criminal trial. Those measures included certain orders implementing an anonymous jury order, and the district court's refusal to grant the News Media's motion for post-verdict access to juror information. Finding that a portion of the district court's orders supplementing its anonymous jury order was an unconstitutional prior restraint, we reverse in part. We reject, however, the News Media's requests that the district court be ordered to release the jurors' identifying information and juror questionnaires.
Former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards and several others, including state Insurance Commissioner Jim Brown, were indicted for various federal crimes allegedly committed in connection with a "'sham settlement' that derailed a $27 million lawsuit threatened by the state against David Disiere, president of Cascade Insurance Co., a failed automobile insurance carrier." United States v. Brown, 218 F.3d 415, 418 (5th Cir. 2000). The indictment included numerous counts of conspiracy, mail and wire fraud, insurance fraud, making false statements, and witness tampering. The trial at issue in this appeal was the second of three federal prosecutions involving former Governor Edwards. In the first trial, Edwards and several other defendants were convicted in June, 2000, of charges based on bribery to obtain a riverboat gambling license. The third trial, also involving bribery allegations, was held in March, 2001. The jury convicted Cecil Brown on seven out of nine counts. Edwards was an unindicted co-conspirator in that case and appeared as a witness for Brown.2
Trial on this second indictment began on September 18, 2000. On October 11, Edwards and Shreveport lawyer Ronald Weems were acquitted of all charges. Brown was acquitted on most charges but convicted on seven counts of making false statements to an FBI agent. The district court threw out two of these counts.
On March 31, 2000, the United States filed a motion for the impanelment of an anonymous jury. The defendants opposed the motion. On July 13, the district court continued the trial until September 18, 2000, and it granted the Government's motion for an anonymous jury.
The News Media, as intervenors, requested on July 26 that the district court reconsider its approval of an anonymous jury. In the alternative, the News Media asked for access to the names, addresses, and places of employment of the jurors upon entry of the verdict, to the extent that the information might be withheld during trial.
The district court issued reasons for granting the anonymous jury motion on August 9. Stating that anonymity has long been an important element of the jury system, the court reasoned that its order "merely increased the degree of anonymity by withholding the jurors' names, addresses, and places of employment." The court found that three of five non-exclusive factors3 that the Fifth Circuit has stated may justify impaneling an anonymous jury were present in this case. First, there have been charges that the defendants have attempted to interfere with the judicial process or witnesses through witness tampering, attempting to bribe a judge, attempting to illegally terminate a federal investigation and influencing a court-appointed special master. Two of the defendants have pled guilty to witness tampering, another to misprision of a felony. In addition, Edwards was convicted in the first trial of interfering with Louisiana's judicial and administrative processes for licensing riverboat casinos.
Second, the district court stated that an anonymous jury is appropriate when defendants face a lengthy incarceration and substantial monetary penalties, as they did here. Third, this case has received extensive publicity, enhancing the "possibility that jurors' names would become public and expose them to intimidation and harassment." Krout, 66 F.3d at 1427. In addition, in the previous Edwards trial, "despite extensive and expensive precautions by the United States Marshals Service to protect the anonymity of the jury, certain members of the media aggressively followed, identified, and contacted jurors in violation of the anonymous jury order. . . ." Therefore, the district court concluded, "the media's intense interest in gaining access to the jurors' names, addresses, and place of employment strongly counsels the Court to protect the panel from foreseeable harassment by the media and others." The district court continued: "Any attempts by the media or others to interfere with this order will not be tolerated."
On August 10, the district court denied the Media's motions for reconsideration of the anonymous jury order and deferred ruling on the media's alternative motion for access to jury information upon entry of verdict but stated that "[i]n the meantime, the media is ordered not to attempt to circumvent this Court's ruling preserving the jury's anonymity."
The News Media promptly appealed, challenging: (1) the district court's August 9, 2000 Order to the extent it stated that "any attempt by the media or others to interfere with this Order will not be tolerated"; (2) the district court's August 10, 2000 minute entry stating that "the media is ordered not to circumvent this Court's ruling preserving the jury's anonymity"; and (3) the district court's minute entry of August 10, 2000 indefinitely deferring the News Media's request for post-verdict access to the jurors' names, addresses, places of employment and the juror questionnaires.4 The News Media do not, however, challenge the substantive merit of the anonymous jury order.
Voir dire began on September 18, 2000. After the district court closed portions of the jury voir dire, the News Media sought a writ of mandamus ordering the district court to open the voir dire proceedings to the public and the press and to transcribe immediately and release any portion of voir dire held behind closed doors. The district court entered its reasons for closing the voir dire on September 19, 2000. On October 3, the News Media filed a notice of appeal regarding the same matter.
On October 11, before the verdict was announced, the district court told the jurors that it was not going to release their identities unless they wished to waive or release themselves from anonymity. The trial judge also informed the jurors that they did not have to speak to anyone about the case and that, absent court order, they could not be interviewed about the jury deliberations, but that they could discuss their general reactions to the trial. When asked by the district court whether they wished to waive anonymity, none of the jurors indicated a desire to do so. However, the judge stated that if any juror later sought to be released from the confidentiality agreement, the court would put an order in the record identifying the person.
The News Media immediately sought a post-verdict writ of mandamus ordering the district court to release the names, addresses and places of employment of the anonymous jurors and the completed juror questionnaires that were sealed during the trial. In the alternative, the News Media also filed a notice of appeal.
On October 16, the court granted a motion to unseal the transcript of the closed voir dire.5 The district court denied the News Media's motion for access to juror questionnaires, however, on the grounds that the questionnaires assured the jurors that all information would remain confidential and that the court would not breach this confidentiality agreement. The court offered to release the questionnaires of consenting jurors, but it again refused to release jurors' names, addresses, and places of employment (without their consent). Further, the court repeated that if any juror requested to be released from the confidentiality agreement, the court would place an order in the record identifying the juror. The News Media have appealed and sought mandamus to reverse these orders.
The court went to extraordinary lengths to preserve the integrity of...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
U.S. v. Wecht
...or anonymous voir dire in cases where media exposure or other prejudicial influences might be a problem. See United States v. Brown, 250 F.3d 907, 916-17 (5th Cir.2001) (upholding refusal to grant post-trial access to juror identities and noting that an anonymous jury is preferable to seque......
-
U.S. v. Bredimus, 02-11307.
...challenge to a federal statute de novo. United States v. Delgado-Nunez, 295 F.3d 494, 496 (5th Cir.2002) (quoting United States v. Brown, 250 F.3d 907, 912 (5th Cir.2001)). When reviewing an act of Congress passed under the authority of the Commerce Clause, we review the statute under the r......
-
Berglund v. City of Maplewood, Mn
...(1965) ("[t]he right to speak and publish does not carry with it the unrestrained right to gather information."); United States v. Brown, 250 F.3d 907, 913 (5th Cir.2001) ("the right to gather news, much like other first amendment rights, is not absolute."). The First Amendment "does not gu......
-
U.S. v. Edwards
...approved the closure of voir dire proceedings in a related case, in which Edwin Edwards was also a defendant. See United States v. Brown, 250 F.3d 907, 922 (5th Cir.2001). Although Brown involved a First Amendment challenge to the closure of the voir dire proceedings, this distinction does ......
-
Toward a limited right of access to jury deliberations.
...388 F.3d 1199 (9th Cir. 2004) (upholding the empanelling of an anonymous jury for a Mexican mafia RICO case); United States v. Brown, 250 F.3d 907 (5th Cir. 1991) (upholding district court's decision to empanel anonymous jury and to prohibit media access to information after the verdict had......
-
The Case Against Anonymous Juries
...decision to anonymize the jury was justified by “very real threats . . . posed by excessive media coverage.” United States v. Brown , 250 F.3d 907 (5th Cir. 2001). Extensive pretrial publicity in general is also used to justify anonymous juries. The Sixth Circuit has upheld federal district......