January 9, 2009
Experts: Judge, not jury, focus of White appeal
Any appeal of John White's manslaughter conviction will more likely be determined by any pressure the judge exerted on jurors eager to get home for Christmas rather than pressure they put on each other, legal experts say.
Suffolk County Court Judge Barbara Kahn never told jurors in open court that they would be kept through Christmas for deliberations, but White attorney Frederick Brewington said she never promised they wouldn't remain there through the holiday, either.
On Saturday, "she asked them, 'Please give me a list of your Sunday religious obligations for purposes of handling the schedule.' That indicated to them they were going to be kept there on Sunday, the day before Christmas Eve," Brewington said Wednesday. "They were in the dark as to what to expect."
Suffolk Assistant District Attorney James Chalifoux, who prosecuted the case, said nothing was done to even subtly threaten the jurors with a ruined holiday.
"The court did not put any pressure on them timewise," he said. "We had not even gotten to Christmas Eve yet. All that was discussed with the jurors was the possibility of returning on Sunday."
Jurors came back with a verdict Saturday, less than an hour after Kahn requested their schedules. The jury found White guilty of second-degree manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Daniel Cicciaro Jr., 17, during a racially charged confrontation outside White's Miller Place home in 2006.
Holdout juror Francois Larche later said in an interview he felt pressured to finish before Christmas and ultimately voted to convict.
Eleven hours into the fourth day of deliberations, the frustrations of the panel culminated when one juror was doubled over, trembling.
Jury forewoman Maureen Steigerwald later said the jury was not rushed by the judge, the weekend session or the holiday season.
All of the jurors either could not be reached or declined to comment Wednesday.
"It's almost always the case that courts will not respond to a juror claiming, 'I was pressured by other jurors to give in,'" Touro Law Center professor Richard Klein said.
The issue could only succeed on appeal if higher courts find Kahn coerced the jury.
"If the judge is threatening the jurors with what will happen if they don't reach a unanimous verdict, then that can lead to an overturning of the conviction," Klein said.
He pointed to the case of Jose Fong, a suspected New York drug dealer who got a new trial earlier this month after a federal judge reviewing the case found that a state trial judge told jurors that they had to reach a unanimous decision and would be kept there until they did.
New York's death penalty was suspended in 2004 after a state appeals court found judges' instructions to juries in those cases were coercive. The law required judges to tell jurors that if they cannot reach a unanimous decision on a sentence, the judge must impose a sentence that permits parole in 20 to 25 years.
Dan Richman, a Columbia University law professor and a former federal prosecutor, said White's lawyers would face an "uphill battle" to prove the jury was rushed by the judge.
"So long as a judge isn't on the record as rushing them," that doesn't establish "much of a grounds for overturning the verdict," he said.
Also Wednesday, White co-counsel Marie Michel said the Rev. Al Sharpton and his civil rights organization, the National Action Network, announced they will hold a March for Justice for her client on Jan. 5 in Suffolk County. Michel said White plans to attend. A location and time have yet to be determined.
White had little to say Wednesday outside his home. "I had a hard day at work. I'm not saying anything," he said.
Staff writers Alfonso A. Castillo and Erik German contributed to this story.
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