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United States v. Carlos Rodriguez

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Before Lynch, Chief Judge, Howard and Thompson, Circuit Judges.

Before the ink could dry on its verdict convicting Carlos Rodriguez of being a felon in possession of a firearm, the trial judge learned that a pocket-sized New Testament Bible was found in the jury deliberation room. The judge promptly notified Rodriguez’s counsel of the discovery and he immediately filed a motion for a new trial. In his motion, counsel argued that the Bible’s presence in the jury room violated Rodriguez’s Sixth Amendment right to a trial before an impartial jury and his Sixth Amendment right to confront the witnesses against him. To determine what role the Bible may have played in the jury’s deliberations, Rodriguez asked the trial judge to recall each juror for purposes of conducting an individual voir dire. The motion was denied. Thereafter, Rodriguez filed a second motion for a new trial, which, unlike the first, was related to the actual trial proceedings. This time around, Rodriguez claimed that the prosecutor made improper comments during closing and rebuttal arguments that violated Rodriguez’s Fifth Amendment rights. Again, the motion was denied.

Before this court, Rodriguez contends the district court erred in denying both motions. Additionally, he claims that certain alleged errors by his defense counsel denied him his constitutional rights to due process and effective assistance of counsel. After careful review of the record, we discern no error and therefore affirm.

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