Judge Rejects Al-Arian Mistrial Plea
Published: Dec 1, 2005
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TAMPA - A federal judge denied defense motions for a mistrial Wednesday in the terror-support trial of Sami Al-Arian and three other men as jurors wrapped up a ninth day of deliberations.
Mistrial motions came after defense attorneys learned the jury was exposed to a poll published Nov. 17 in The Tampa Tribune. It appeared on the editorial page under the headline "Court of Public Opinion" and said 87 percent of the respondents to an online poll expected Al-Arian to be convicted.
The former University of South Florida professor is accused of running a North American cell for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The indictment also targets Ghassan Ballut, Hatim Fariz and Sameeh Hammoudeh and includes four conspiracy counts; racketeering and conspiring to commit murder abroad.
Only one juror saw the poll and reported it to the court, wrote U.S. District Judge James Moody. The poll was cut out after the juror reported it.
In his motion, Hammoudeh's defense attorney Stephen Bernstein argued the poll is part of a series of events which cumulatively make a fair trial unlikely. Defense attorneys repeatedly tried to have the trial moved from Tampa, citing the case's high profile and Al-Arian's negative public perception.
Defense attorneys have themselves to blame if the poll caused any harm, prosecutors argued in their response. When the trial started, Moody said he would remove any articles from the morning papers that attorneys didn't want jurors to see. No one noticed the Nov. 17 poll.
"The court should not permit them to benefit from their own failure to request redaction of the poll," wrote federal prosecutor Alexis Collins.
Moody agreed, copying the box in actual size to demonstrate how small the item was in the newspaper. The poll didn't prejudice the jury panel and did not address any facts about the case.
"Much like a sports poll, it merely asked those responding to predict the outcome of an event -- how the jury would ultimately decide the guilt or innocence or Defendant Al-Arian," Moody wrote.
Those people know the least about the case, Bernstein said. They saw none of the testimony or evidence but are predicting what will happen.
"The odds makers in Las Vegas, they make money off people like that," he said.
"Much like a sports poll, it merely asked those responding to predict the outcome of an event …"
