Recent federal appellate decisions confirm that a litigant’s right to have a jury capable and willing to decide the case solely on the evidence before it is a right of constitutional proportions. Thus, when jurors receive extrinsic prejudicial information the trial result may be gravely tainted. A new trial may have to be ordered. This is reflected in a Fifth Circuit decision weeks ago, United States v. Mix, a criminal case in which extraneous prejudicial information given to jurors was held to violate the defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights to an impartial jury.1 Finding constitutional implications within a criminal case context may not be so surprising.

Is there also a constitutional dimension, however, when the jury considers extraneous prejudicial information in a civil case? A federal appellate decision issued on April 24, Bouret-Echevarria v. Caribbean Aviation Maintenance Corp.,2 suggests that the answer is “yes.” Notably, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that a jury’s improper knowledge of a confidential settlement offer warranted an evidentiary hearing, even some 18 months after the trial, to determine whether the verdict of no liability for defendants in a helicopter crash case was tainted. At the heart of the decision was the appellate court’s recognition that there may have been a violation of due process with a jury prejudicially influenced by forbidden information.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]