Anonymous Juries

At the Oklahoma City bombing trial of Timothy McVeigh jurors’ names were kept private. So, too, in the corruption trials of former governors Edwin Edwards of Louisiana and Rod Blagojevich of Illinois. Likewise in the recent Chicago trial for the murder of Jennifer Hudson’s mother and other family members. And last year Maryland’s courts adopted rules saying jurors are to be referred to by numbers, not names, and authorizing the trial judge to order that names and addresses be withheld from everyone except counsel when there is substantial danger of harm or undue influence. Then last month the federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals weighed in on the subject. In United States v. Dinkins, No. 09-4668, 09-4669, 09-4755 (August 14, 2012), the court approved the use of an anonymous jury in a murder/drugs/firearms trial in Baltimore. The Fourth seems to be the last federal circuit court to rule on anonymous juries, and there now is fairly uniform agreement among the federal courts on when they are permitted. It is worthwhile to review what the federal courts say since there is little useful state law, and state courts generally tend to follow federal precedent on issues with First and Sixth Amendment implications. (There appears to be only one North Carolina appellate case that even touches on the issue of anonymous juries, and it is a glancing blow. In State v. Garcell, 363 NC 10 (2009), the Supreme Court said that the trial judge did not have to investigate possible juror exposure to [...]