U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick on Monday ruled that each jury member was individually polled about their verdicts at the time of the verdicts, and had their chance then to speak.
Kohring's lawyer, John Henry Browne, claims that one juror has expressed remorse for the verdicts against Kohring and Browne wants to us an affidavit by the juror to gain leniency at sentencing on Wednesday.
After the verdicts were read, the jurors were all individually polled and each responded
that these were his or her true verdicts.
According to the motion, defense counsel wishes to interview "a juror from
Mr. Kohring's trial in order to obtain information for sentencing about what the
government actually proved at trial and the basis of the convictions." (Doc. 177 at p. 1)
An unnamed juror allegedly advised John Davies, "a trusted confidant" of defendant, of
"potential misconduct during the jury deliberations." (Doc. 177 at p. 5) There is no
suggestion of any outside interference with the jury deliberations. Rather, Kohring's
motion papers imply that there is some ambiguity, uncertainty or problem about what
was actually proved at trial and perhaps some related error in the jury instructions.
By way of relief, defendant wants to obtain an affidavit from the unnamed juror to
use at sentencing to explain what the jury did. (Doc. 177 at p. 8) Of course, what any
one juror might say about the proof at trial is meaningless. It is the verdict of the jury as
a whole which is of consequence. Moreover, even interviewing all of the jurors would
be improper. With exceptions not relevant here, the common law rule that a juror's
testimony cannot be used to impeach a jury verdict is the law applied in the federal
courts. See, e.g., Tanner v. United States, 483 U.S. 107, 119-120 (1987). To the
extent the motion is premised on error in the jury instructions, that is a matter which
Kohring would have to pursue on appeal.
AUDIO: Prosecutor Edward Sullivan during closing arguments on Kohring betraying the public's trust - "He sold his oath and his office in exchange for personal gain"
AUDIO: Prosecutor Joseph Bottini on Kohring begging for money "Kohring turned this guy (Allen) into a human ATM machine."
Corrupt Bastard Member Vic Kohring "The Money Shot" Convicted Alaska legislator Vic Kohring recorded by the FBI in a Juneau hotel suite rented by Veco CEO Bill Allen and Veco VP Rick Smith. Kohring visits Allen to beg for money, Allen hands it over - then later says "This is what I want you to do"
