Appellant McCowen Brief - Mass Cases

citing Haywood, 377 Mass. at 769-70. The court here ran
afoul of this Court's admonition. Despite paying lip
service to the "protocols" required by Coorinor and
Haywood, the trial court failed to follow the most basic
among them:
We think it instructive to add that, in the future,
before a juror is excused from deliberations and
replaced by an alternate ... the judge should hold a
hearing and be fully satisfied that there is a
meritorious reason why a particular juror should not
continue to serve - [!F]he juxor's presence may or may
not be required, but all other personnel with relevant
information should be heard _I before the juror is I.
discharged. The judge then should consider whether, in
view of all the circumstances, an alternate juror should
be substituted.
Haywood, 377 Mass. at 769-70.
None of that happened here. Questions remain about
the mysterious, overnight-delivery tape; about whether
Huffman watched the news; whether her view of law
enforcement changed because of the Hicks conversation.
The court drew its conclusions from the tape alone,
extrapolating from an off-hand remark about Falmouth
Police to conclude Huffman harbored antipathy toward the
Commonwealth. Connor and Haywood require more.
This case is more egregious than Connor or Haywood
because Huffman was not a "problem juror," in no way
antagonistic toward the process, During deliberations I
she acted as a mediator, urging €ellow jurors to listen
to the dissidents. But even if she'd been detested, hex
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