By LISA RATHKE - Associated Press
A Somali Bantu immigrant convicted of sexually assaulting a child will get a new trial because a juror may have been influenced by information he found on the Internet about the Somali culture, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled Friday.
The Somali culture played a significant role in the trial of Ali M. Abdi, who was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a 9-year-old member of the Somali Bantu community in Burlington after community elders went to police, the court said.
"It is simply impossible to conclude that outside information used by at least one juror — as the trial court found — to 'interpret the testimony of the Somali witnesses and to determine the credibility of these witnesses' could have had no impact on the verdict," the court said, noting a growing problem of jurors consulting the Internet for outside information.
"Although Vermont trial courts routinely admonish jurors not to consult outside sources, it may well be time to consider a stronger and more technology-specific admonition...," the court said.
Internet access by jurors is a big problem these days, said Stephen Saltzburg, professor of law at George Washington University.
Some judges are giving instructions at the beginning of cases so that jurors understand that it's unfair to access outside information that cannot be tested by both sides in the case.
But unless juries are sequestered, there's no way to assure that it won't happen. "All we can do is really urge jurors," he said.
In the Vermont case, the victim's brother first reported the sexual assault, telling his mother that he saw the defendant with his hand up his sister's skirt while he was at their house in December of 2006. The victim later testified Abdi had committed similar acts before and had sexually assaulted her, the court said.
The victim's mother told Abdi's wife. Together they referred the matter to the community's elders
Court papers did not say what the juror had researched on the Internet other than Somali culture and religion.
The leading elder testified that in their culture, the word of a child without an adult witness is generally considered to be insufficient evidence of sexual assault and that further investigation was needed, the court said. He said the law and culture required that Abdi be asked three times whether he had assaulted the girl, the court said.
The first two times, Abdi denied it, but the third time he responded yes. The elders contacted police. Abdi was charged with two counts of sexual assault on a child under age 13.
The leading elder explained that if Abdi had denied the assaults a third time, the defendant, his wife, and the victim's mother would have been asked to swear on the Quran, the court said. "Something bad will happen to the person who did something, who's lying" when swearing on the Quran, the leading elder testified.
A doctor examined the girl and found no evidence of sexual assault but said most young victims of sexual assault do not show physical symptoms, the court said.
In 2009, a juror disclosed during a hearing on another jury matter that a fellow juror had researched the Somali culture and religion on the Internet and shared the information with the rest of the jury.
Based on that disclosure, Abdi sought a new trial. The trial court denied the request, saying that the information did not influence the verdict and that the evidence of guilt was strong, the Supreme Court said.
Abdi then took his claim of jury misconduct to the Vermont Supreme Court. The court said on Friday that the defendant was entitled to a fair trial free of extraneous influences. His right is reflected in the Sixth Amendment guarantee that "the evidence developed against a defendant shall come from the witness stand in a public courtroom where there is full judicial protection of the defendant's right of confrontation, or cross examination, and of counsel," the court said.
"Consideration by a jury of facts outside the evidence strikes at the heart of these rights," the Supreme Court said.
Source: The Associated Press
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