Hall v. State , No. 285

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Delaware
• Writing for the Court: REVERSED AND REMANDED.
• Citation: 12 A.3d 1123
• Parties: Brice M. HALL, Defendant Below–Appellant,v.STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff Below–Appellee.
• Docket Number: No. 285,2007.
• Decision Date: 13 August 2010

12 A.3d 1123

Brice M. HALL, Defendant Below–Appellant,
v.
STATE of Delaware, Plaintiff Below–Appellee.

No. 285

2007.

Supreme Court of Delaware.

Submitted: May 5, 2010.Decided: Aug. 13, 2010.

[12 A.3d 1123]

Court Below: Superior Court of the State of Delaware in and for Kent County, ID No. 0602012587.Upon appeal from the Superior Court. REVERSED AND REMANDED.John R. Garey, Esquire (argued) of John R. Garey, PA, Dover, Delaware, for appellant.

[12 A.3d 1124]

John Williams, Esquire (argued) of the Department of Justice, Dover, Delaware, for appellee.Before HOLLAND, JACOBS, and RIDGELY, Justices.RIDGELY, Justice:

Defendant-below Brice M. Hall appeals from his Superior Court conviction of assault in a detention facility. Hall makes two arguments on appeal. First, he contends the Superior Court committed plain error by not removing an impaneled juror employed with the Delaware Department of Corrections and assigned to the same institution as Hall. Second, he contends that the Superior Court committed plain error by not conducting an adequate voir dire of the juror to establish the details of the juror member's employment and previous contacts with Hall. It is undisputed that the juror worked as a correctional officer on Hall's tier within the prison, had direct oversight of Hall during his imprisonment, and would have delivered by hand any mail addressed to Hall. We conclude that the inherent interest of the juror in the outcome of this case as a correctional officer responsible for the direct supervision of Hall requires a new trial. Accordingly, we reverse.¹

Facts and Procedural History

On February 15, 2006, Ryan Neeman pled guilty to a felony offense in the Kent County Superior Court. After his plea, he was taken downstairs to the prisoner lockup while awaiting transport to prison. Neeman was wearing street clothes, rather than a prison uniform, including white New Balance tennis shoes. At the time, Neeman was handcuffed to another prisoner in the detention cell. Hall was an inmate at the Delaware Correctional Center ² and was also in the lockup. Neeman claims Hall told him he could not wear his sneakers at the prison, and demanded Neeman give him the shoes. When Neeman did not comply, Hall punched Neeman in the left eye, causing Neeman to fall to the ground. As a result of the assault, Neeman suffered a fractured jaw. Hall later admitted punching Neeman, but he vehemently denied it was during an attempted robbery of Neeman's shoes. He testified it was in self-defense against Neeman spitting on him. Hall was arrested and subsequently indicted on charges of assault in a detention facility and robbery in the first degree. When the matter proceeded to trial before a jury, a correctional officer was seated as Juror Number 11.

On the juror questionnaire, Juror Number 11 disclosed his employment as a correctional officer, but during voir dire, did not respond to the question of whether any juror members knew Hall. After trial began and the first witness testified, the trial judge was alerted to the fact that Juror Number 11 was a correctional officer. The trial judge conducted additional voir dire of the juror but voir dire was limited to Juror Number 11's knowledge of and relationship with the other correctional officers who would testify. The trial judge did not ask Juror Number 11, nor did defense counsel request him to ask, if he had any contact with Hall in his capacity as a correctional officer. Because Juror Number 11 did not know the officers who would testify, the trial judge allowed him to remain on the jury.

[12 A.3d 1125]

Hall testified in his own defense. He acknowledged that he was a convicted felon, including a prior second degree assault conviction. Hall admitted that he punched Neeman, but claimed it was in self-defense after Neeman spit in his face. Hall specifically denied attempting to remove Neeman's sneakers. The jury acquitted Hall of robbery in the first degree, but convicted him of Assault in a Detention Facility. Hall was declared an habitual offender and was sentenced to ten years incarceration.

Hall appealed to this Court, asserting that he was denied his right to be tried by a fair and impartial jury. After filing his Opening Brief, Hall moved to remand this case to the Superior Court for an evidentiary hearing on the potential bias of Juror Number 11. This Court granted the motion.

Evidentiary hearing on remand

At the hearing on remand, Juror Number 11 testified, and his employment records confirmed, that in fact he worked on Hall's particular prison tier four times prior to the trial and in the building that housed Hall eight times before the start of the trial. Juror Number 11 testified that during each of his assignments to Hall's tier, his job included conducting “phone punches” every half hour. A “phone punch” involves the correctional officer looking into each individual's inmate's cell. It can be reasonably inferred that since Juror Number 11 worked four eight-hour shifts on the tier where Hall was housed, Juror Number 11 looked into Hall's cell on at least 64 different occasions. Juror Number 11 further explained that when working on Hall's tier, he was also responsible for handing out the mail. In doing so, he would read the names on the envelopes and then handed the mail to the corresponding inmate. Despite the assignment to Hall's tier and building, Juror Number 11 said that he did not recall any specific interaction with Hall prior to the trial. He explained that due to the large number of inmates, correctional officers typically only become aware of particular inmates if they have behavioral or disciplinary problems. According to Juror Number 11, Hall did not demonstrate either behavioral or disciplinary problems. Juror Number 11 acknowledged that after the trial, he had a direct conversation with Hall on his tier in which he confirmed that he was a juror in Hall's trial.

Hall testified that he knew Juror Number 11 prior to being incarcerated because of ten separate interactions when that juror worked at a Wawa store located in Dover, Delaware. Juror Number 11 acknowledged that he had worked at Wawa immediately prior to his employment at the Delaware Correctional Center. Hall further testified to one particular occasion in which Juror Number 11 and Hall had a conversation while Hall was awaiting trial concerning an interaction they had at Wawa. Juror Number 11 denied having had this conversation.

Accepting Juror Number 11's testimony, the Superior Court found that the juror “did not know or have contact of any significance with Defendant at any stage during Defendant's pretrial or trial proceedings.” The Superior Court concluded that Hall received a fair and impartial trial and that Juror Number 11 “was not impermissibly biased against Defendant, and did not infect the jury in any way.” This appeal followed.

Discussion

Hall contends that the Superior Court erred by not sua sponte removing Juror Number 11 upon learning at trial that he was...