United States v. Mix

Defendant, a BP engineer, was prosecuted for deleting text messages and emails related to oil spill calculations of the Macondo well from the Deepwater Horizon accident site. Defendant was convicted of obstruction of justice for deleting a text message exchange between himself and his boss. Defendant's counsel later discovered that the jury foreperson, Juror 1, overheard in a courthouse elevator that other BP employees were being prosecuted. During a deadlock in deliberations, Juror 1 told the rest of the jury that she had overheard something that increased her confidence in voting guilty. Other members of the jury prevented her from revealing what she had overheard. The district court granted a new trial based on the jury's exposure to extrinsic evidence and the government appealed. The court affirmed the judgment, concluding that defendant met his initial evidentiary burden of showing that prejudice was likely, both as to the information overheard by Juror 1 and as to the information that she relayed to the rest of the jury, and the government did not prove lack of prejudice. View "United States v. Mix" on Justia Law