Black's Federal Criminal Defense Attorneys To Investigate Juror Comments

Former media mogul Conrad Black was convicted Friday, July 13, of defrauding newspaper empire Hollinger International out of millions of dollars.^[1] He was found guilty by a federal jury of three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice for removing documents out of his Toronto office in defiance of a court order.^[2]

However federal criminal defense attorneys are "looking into" a conversation among jurors in the Conrad Black fraud trial about a news story related to the case, that may have taken place despite the fact that juries in civil and criminal cases are repeatedly instructed not to discuss the case outside of deliberations, and not to read media reports about it.^[3]

The Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday, July 16, that, during deliberations, a juror told her colleagues that she had been told some foreign press suggested the jury was too stupid to understand the complex case which "It didn't settle well with anyone," said Margaret Williams, a juror on the case.^[4] Williams said she had reassured her fellow jurors that they were all smart people and "let's do this," but she asserts that the comment didn't affect the jury's verdict one way or the other.^[5]

Ron Safer, an attorney for former Hollinger corporate counsel Mark Kipnis, said he may file a motion this week regarding the juror's remark.^[6] "Generally, you can't look behind the jury's deliberations….There are limited exceptions. This might be one of them," Safer said.^[7] Federal criminal defense attorneys for Black and former Hollinger executive Peter Atkinson also confirmed that they were looking into the Sun-Times report.^[8]

"I honestly don't think it's a big deal…….We had 18 weeks of trial, and we're going to have to do a do-over because someone's brother-in-law said something? That would be silly….[the comment would have to have had a prejudicial impact, but it is] a regular occurrence in lengthy trials where people would hear from their relatives about the case," said DePaul University law professor Stephan Landsman.^[9]

Obstruction of Justice
Under 18 U.S.C. § 1503(a), it is a crime for a person to corruptly influence, obstruct, or impede the due administration of justice. The punishment for a violation of section 1503(a) is a fine, imprisonment for up to 10 years, or both.

Federal criminal attorney Douglas McNabb has also previously discussed mail fraud in his blog, here.

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^[1] Mike Robinson, Black Convicted of Swindling Millions, Associated Press Newswire, July 14, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File
^[2] Id.
^[3] Mary Wisniewski, Defense in Black case looks into juror's remark, Chicago Sun-Times, July 17, 2007, available at http://www.suntimes.com/business/hollinger/470995,CST-NWS-conrad17.article (last visited July 18, 2007).
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.