Tony Daugherty v. Tom Harlan, Superintendent, Huttonsville Correctional Center

Petitioner was charged in West Virginia with numerous counts arising from the alleged sexual abuse of his son. While the jury was deliberating on the charges, a member of the jury lied to his fellow jurors about knowing Petitioner and his family and expressed not only his fear should Petitioner not be convicted, but that his fellow jurors should share that fear. Petitioner was eventually convicted on only four of the twelve counts on which he went to trial in a nonsensical verdict. This Petition presents the issue of whether a juror’s false statement that he knows the defendant and his family, combined with expressions of fear should the defendant be acquitted and exhortations that other jurors should feel the same, constitute an “external influence” on the jury that deprived Petitioner his right to an impartial jury as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. -1-