I have rarely heard of unethical conduct by a juror, but I found a recent article on ctpost dated May 25, 2016, entitled “Juror dismissed after taking court exhibit” by Daniel Tepfer. In Bridgeport, Louisiana, a jury had convicted Amelia Rhodes of “possession of a weapon in a motor vehicle, reckless driving and using a motor vehicle without the owner’s permission”. The jury was set to determine the defendant’s guilt on another charge a couple days later. However, prior to determining the guilt or innocence of the defendant, the jury foreman was dismissed from the jury after being found to have committed an unethical act. An exhibit, a jury instruction provided by the judge, had been found to be missing after a jury deliberation. The exhibit was later found in the jury foreman’s notebook. The notebook also contained several pages of notes about the other jurors participating on the case. For this reason, the foreman was dismissed from the jury. Jurors have the ethical duty to follow the rules of the court in order to prevent a mistrial and in order to allow the defendant to have fair trial. In this case, there was definitely a violation of an ethical issue by the juror. Jurors are reminded numerous times about the confidentiality of exhibits given to them during deliberation and to not take any exhibits from the room. The foreman obviously took the exhibit even though he claims that he does not know who he got it. He is also denying taking pages of notes about the other jurors. Jurors have an ethical duty to follow the rules presented to them by the judge. Although not mentioned in the article, it appears that the juror may have had plans to present the evidence and the information concerning the jurors to someone, and it could have been for money. In this regard, any assumptions that could be made from his conduct lead only to behavior that would have been unethical as well.
References
Tepfer, D. (2016, May 25). Juror dismissed after taking court exhibit. Retrieved from ctpost: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Juror-dismissed-after-taking-court-exhibit-7944984.php
