State v. Lyles

• Decision Date: 20 June 1989
• Docket Number: No. 8811SC690,8811SC690
• Citation: 380 S.E.2d 390,94 N.C.App. 240
• Court: North Carolina Court of Appeals
• Parties: STATE of North Carolina v. Frederick LYLES.

Page 390

380 S.E.2d 390

94 N.C.App. 240

STATE of North Carolina v. Frederick LYLES.

No. 8811SC690.

Court of Appeals of North Carolina.

June 20, 1989.

Atty. Gen. Lacy H. Thornburg by Asst. Atty. Gen. Randy Meares and Asst. Atty. Gen. D. David Steinbock, Raleigh, for the State.

Office of the Appellant Defender by Malcolm Ray Hunter, Jr., Raleigh, for defendant-appellant.

BECTON, Judge.

Following his conviction of robbery with a firearm, the defendant, Frederick Lyles, filed a Motion for Appropriate Relief, seeking a new trial on the ground that his constitutional right of confrontation had been violated by the jury's exposure to certain extraneous evidence. Evidence presented at the hearing on defendant's motion showed that the jury members tampered with a photographic exhibit during deliberations. As a result, they were exposed to information not introduced in evidence which contradicted defendant's alibi witnesses. Until that information was revealed, the jury had been split on the issue of defendant's guilt. The hearing judge denied defendant's Motion for Appropriate Relief, and this court granted certiorari. For the reasons that follow, we reverse, and order that defendant receive a new trial.

I

The relevant facts are as follows. Two men robbed a jewelry store in Kenly, North Carolina, in November 1982. Three years later, in November 1985, eyewitnesses identified defendant from a photographic line-up as one of the robbers. Based on this identification, defendant was indicted and tried for robbery with a dangerous weapon.

At trial, the State's case rested solely on the eyewitnesses' identification of defendant. The photographic line-up used by the witnesses in 1985 was introduced in evidence as State's Exhibit 1. In its original condition, the exhibit consisted of several "mug shots," of defendant and five other men, taped to a manila folder, with paper taped over the lower portion of the photographs to conceal writing that appeared there. To challenge the State's identification testimony, defendant presented evidence that he had been in another state when the robbery was committed and that he differed in several respects from the eyewitnesses' description of the perpetrator.

The jury deliberated for four hours before it asked to see Exhibit 1, the photographic line-up. Neither party objected, and the exhibit was delivered to the jury room. While viewing the exhibit, one of the jurors peeled back the paper over the bottom of defendant's photograph, revealing the words, "Police Department, Wilson, North Carolina--12291, 12-07-81." The jurors discussed the writing on the photograph as evidence that defendant had been in the area in December 1981, a fact which, if true, contradicted the testimony of defendant's alibi witnesses that he lived in another state from 1980 to 1984 and had not returned to North Carolina during that time. Less than one hour after this information was revealed, the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict.

Following his conviction, and while an appeal was pending before this court, defendant filed his Motion for Appropriate Relief. We ordered the case remanded to the superior court for an evidentiary hearing on the motion.

At the hearing, eleven of the twelve jurors testified. All admitted seeing and discussing the information revealed on the photograph. The hearing judge sustained objections to questions concerning the effect of the information on the jury's verdict, but allowed that testimony to be elicited for purposes of the record. The hearing judge concluded as a matter of law that defendant failed to show he was prejudiced by the jury's actions and that, therefore, he was not entitled to the relief sought.

Defendant appealed, and this court granted certiorari. Defendant's primary contentions on appeal are: (1) that he was entitled to a new trial because his constitutional right of confrontation was violated by the jury's consideration of information not in evidence; (2) that the hearing judge erred by excluding evidence of the effect the information had upon the jury's verdict; and (3) that the hearing judge improperly placed the burden of showing prejudice upon the defendant. Given our disposition of this appeal, we will not address defendant's remaining assignments of error.

II

We must first decide whether this was a case in which jurors could testify to impeach their verdict. We conclude that it was.

Generally speaking, once a verdict is rendered, jurors may not impeach it. State v. Cherry, 298 N.C. 86, 100, 257 S.E.2d 551, 560 (1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 941, 100 S.Ct. 2165, 64 L.Ed.2d 796 (1980). Substantial policy considerations supporting this anti-impeachment rule include freedom of deliberation, stability and finality of verdicts, and protection of jurors from harassment and embarrassment. See N.C.Gen.Stat. Sec. 8C-1, comment to R.Evid. 606 (1988); Chandler v. U-Line Corp., 91 N.C.App. 315, 322-23, 371 S.E.2d 717, 721-22, disc. rev. denied, 323 N.C. 623, 374 S.E.2d 583 (1988); see generally, Weinstein, 3 Weinstein's Evidence para. 606 (1987). However, harsh injustice has sometimes resulted from the view that jury verdicts are beyond challenge. Thus, as an "accommodation between policies designed to safeguard the institution of trial by jury and policies designed to insure a just result in [an] individual case," certain exceptions to the rule have been carved out. Weinstein's Evidence para. 606.

Section 15A-1240 of the General Statutes and Rule 606(b) of the Rules of Evidence provide limited exceptions to the anti-impeachment rule. Section 15A-1240 allows impeachment of a verdict only in a criminal case, and only when (1) the verdict was reached by lot; (2) a juror was subjected to bribery, intimidation, or attempted bribery or intimidation; or (3) "matters not in evidence ... came to the attention of one or more jurors under circumstances which would violate the defendant's constitutional right to confront the witnesses against him...." N.C.Gen.Stat. Sec. 15A-1240 (1988) (emphasis added). Rule 606(b), which applies in both criminal and civil cases, provides that a juror is competent to testify when the validity of a verdict is challenged, but only "on the question whether extraneous prejudicial information was improperly brought to the jury's attention or whether any outside influence was improperly brought to bear upon any juror." N.C.Gen.Stat. Sec. 8C-1, R.Evid. 606(b) (1988) (emphasis added). See generally, Brandis, 1 Brandis on North Carolina Evidence Sec. 65 (3d ed. 1988).

We hold that the writing on defendant's photograph was both "extraneous information" within the meaning of Rule 606(b) and was a "matter not in evidence" which implicated defendant's confrontation right within the meaning of Section 15A-1240(c)(1) because it was "information dealing with the defendant [and] the case ... being tried ... which ... reache[d] a juror without being introduced in evidence." State v. Rosier, 322 N.C. 826, 832, 370 S.E.2d 359, 363 (1988). Our Supreme Court made it clear in Rosier that once the jury receives extraneous information pertinent to the defendant or the case, the jurors are competent to impeach their verdict. Id. The Rosier court reached a different result than the one we reach today because the information which came to the jury's attention, although not introduced in evidence, was not "extraneous" since it did not concern that defendant or the evidence in that case. Id.

III

Defendant contends that the hearing judge erred by excluding juror testimony regarding how the extraneous information affected the jury's decision. We disagree.

Defendant correctly points out that the official comment to Rule 606 suggests that a juror is competent to testify regarding the effect of extraneous prejudicial information upon the jurors' mental processes. The comment states in relevant part:

The exclusion [in Rule 606(b) ] is intended to encompass testimony about mental processes and any testimony about any matter or statement occurring during the deliberations, except that testimony of either of these two types can be admitted if it relates to extraneous prejudicial information or improper outside influence.... G.S. 15A-1240 ... should be amended to conform to Rule 606.

N.C.Gen.Stat. Sec. 8C-1, comment to R.Evid. 606 (1988). See also Chandler, 91 N.C.App. at 322, 371 S.E.2d at 721 (citing comment to R.Evid. 606 for quoted principle). It appears, however, that the comment inadvertently misstates the rule since both Rule 606(b) and Section 15A-1240 unambiguously prohibit inquiry into the effect of anything occurring during deliberations upon jurors' minds.

Rule 606(b) plainly states that "a juror may not testify as to ... the effect of anything upon his or any other juror's mind or emotions as influencing him to assent to or dissent from the verdict ... or concerning his mental processes in connection therewith...." N.C.Gen.Stat. Sec. 8C-1, R.Evid. 606(b) (emphasis added). Similarly, Section 15A-1240(a) provides that "no evidence may be received to show the effect of any statement, conduct, event, or condition upon the mind of a juror or concerning the mental processes by which the verdict was determined." N.C.Gen.Stat. Sec. 15A-1240(a) (emphasis added). Thus, it is clear that jurors may testify regarding the objective events listed as exceptions in the statutes, but are prohibited from testifying to the subjective effect those matters had on their verdict. See Smith v. Price, 315 N.C. 523, 535-36, 340 S.E.2d 408, 416 (1986) (Rule 606(b) permits juror testimony regarding "the fact that extraneous prejudicial information was acquired by [a] juror," but prohibits testimony as to "the effect ... this information had upon her vote") (emphasis added); accord Mattox v. United States, 146 U.S. 140, 148-49, 13 S.Ct. 50, 58-59, 36 L.Ed. 917, 921 (1892) (established long-standing rule that "[a] jur[or] may testify to any facts bearing upon the question of...