United States v. Clemente Arroyo

MEMORANDUM

Defendants Clemente Ferrias Arroyo and Jose Alfredo Zepeda were convicted of various crimes stemming from their participation in a large marijuana growing operation in rural Lassen County, California. They appeal, contending that the district court investigated an accusation of jury misconduct inadequately. We disagree. Arroyo and Zepeda also argue that the district court’s ex parte response denying the jury’s request for a transcript of Arroyo’s testimony was structural error requiring automatic reversal of both convictions under United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648 , 104 S.Ct. 2039 , 80 L.Ed.2d 657 (1984). We agree that the court erred. The error was not structural as to Zepe-da’s conviction, and his conviction is affirmed. Because we cannot say that this error was “harmless beyond a reasonable doubt” as to Arroyo, Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24 , 87 S.Ct. 824 , 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967), we reverse his conviction and remand. We therefore need not decide whether the error was structural as to Arroyo. Id.

We begin by addressing Arroyo’s and Zepeda’s challenge to the adequacy of the district court’s investigation into potential juror misconduct, specifically one…