Franks v. State (2002)

In Franks v. State, 90 S.W.3d 771 (Tex. App.--Fort Worth 2002, no pet.), the defendant argued the trial court erred when it denied his motion for mistrial based on juror misconduct. According to the defendant, the trial court's use of an Allen charge exerted an improper outside influence on the jury's decision to find him guilty. Id. at 799. The defendant presented the testimony of one of the jurors during the hearing on his motion for mistrial. According to the defendant, the trial court's Allen charge coerced the juror into changing her vote to guilty. Id. at 800. The court of appeals then stated: "There is no evidence that anyone physically threatened or bribed the juror to vote guilty, and she never expressed that she did not actually agree with the jury's verdict after the verdict was given and the jury was polled. In fact, the juror expressed agreement with the guilty verdict directly after the verdict was read. Instead, the defendant's complaint merely alleges that she was coerced into voting guilty. However, we believe that this evidence only relates to influences that came to bear inside the jury room as part of its deliberations and cannot constitute an outside influence.... Consequently, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in determining that the juror's vote was free of outside influence and voluntarily given and did not err in denying the defendant's motion for mistrial on this point." Id. The Franks Court's analysis relies on Texas Rule of Evidence 606(b), which provides: Upon an inquiry into the validity of a verdict or indictment, a juror may not testify as to any matter or statement occurring during the jury's deliberations, or to the effect of anything on any juror's mind or emotions or mental processes, as influencing any juror's assent to or dissent from the verdict or indictment. Nor may a juror's affidavit or any statement by a juror concerning any matter about which the juror would be precluded from testifying be admitted in evidence for any of these purposes. However, a juror may testify: (1) whether any outside influence was improperly brought to bear upon any juror; or (2) to rebut a claim that the juror was not qualified to serve. Tex. R. Evid. 606(b).