Chaka Fattah, Sr. v. United States

Federal criminal defendants may be convicted only by unanimous juries. That unanimity may not be achieved by removing a holdout juror because of how he views a case. This Court has not had occasion to consider the standard by which district courts should determine whether to dismiss a juror during deliberations when complaints of misconduct might stem from that juror’s view of the evidence. Three circuits apply what the government acknowledged below to be a “stricter,” “heightened standard,” and allow juror removal only if there is “no possibility” that complaints about a juror arise from his view of the evidence. Three other circuits, including the Third Circuit, allow juror removal so long as a district court deems that possibility not to be “reasonable.” The question presented is: Whether, to remove a juror for alleged misconduct during deliberations, a district court must determine that there is no possibility that the allegations of misconduct stem from the juror’s view of the evidence. (i)