Q: Can a juror in one criminal trial be on another jury in another criminal trial in a different county at the same time?
During my criminal trial where I was representing myself pro se after having insufficient councill during the entire court hearings
my trail was interrupted ..I was informed at the end of my trial by a district attorney from another county who walked into the courtroom to inform my judge that one of the jurors in my jury trial had answered the phone during deliberation to let the district attorney know that she was in the middle of my jury trail. The judge acted like it was no big deal and said that she and the district attorney in my county already knew that's the juror was on another case another county and that she could go ahead and stay on my jury even though she answered the phone and told the other district attorney in the other case in the other county she's a part of that she was in the middle of my trial. I was told that was a conflict of interest is that true.
A: There is nothing that would automatically prevent a juror from serving on your jury simply because they have a pending case in another county or make this a conflict of interest. Generally speaking, the juror should not be talking on the phone during deliberations (which is likely why the other prosecutor felt the need to disclose the conversation to the judge) but so long as the juror did discuss your case with the other prosecutor and did not lie and misrepresent having a pending case in another county during jury selection, there is nothing here would rise to the level a juror issue that could be the basis for an appeal.
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