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State v. Golphin8/25/2000
th you than we have been getting from the jury generally because you have been selected as jurors in this case.
They will also be giving you some information about the transportation procedure and about the lunch procedure during the trial, including the menu that you will be able to choose from during the trial and the menu selection sheets. So I would ask that you cooperate with them in furnishing the information that they have requested, and if you have questions about the logistics of reporting, you may ask them and they will probably have the answers.
One thing we do not know at this point is exactly the precise location here at the courthouse where you will report. We will have a place and there will be parking provided at that place, but we cannot tell you right now the precise location. When you are called and told to come in, you will be told specifically when to report. The reporting time will be 8:15. That is on the sheet. That will be basically the reporting time each day unless there is something unusual for that day about the court schedule. So the reporting time here at the courthouse in Johnston County or some location near this will be 8:15 in the morning.
The court schedule again 10:00 to 4:00 with an hour for lunch probably from 12:30 to 1:30. There will be a short break in the middle of the morning, short break in the middle of the afternoon. And then at 4:00 go back to the bus, take you back to the same place --well, the place where your car is here in Johnston County. If somebody is driving you here, that is fine. You should be back at the same place. The bus will leave from the same place and come back to the same place which is near where the cars will be parked. So if somebody is going to pick you up, they could do so at that location.
The trial court gave similar instructions after each of the remaining nine jurors and four alternate jurors were selected.
Defendants argue the clerk's communication with selected jurors was not merely administrative in nature in that there is a possibility the jurors asked the clerk substantive questions. In support of this argument, defendants point out that, in its instructions to jurors Kirsti Lovette Kearney, Sharon Seals Waugh, and Alice Rayne Stephenson, the trial court added:
If you have questions about the logistics of when you report, where you report -- no one can answer or would answer any questions about any other aspect of the trial -- but if you have questions about those kind of logistical matters that [the clerk] may be able to answer those questions for you.
Defendants argue this additional instruction indicates there was a problem limiting jurors' questions to those concerning logistical matters. Defendants also state the trial court did not give this additional instruction to any other group of selected jurors.
The clerk of court's contact with the selected jurors in the instant case is similar to that in Bacon, Lemons, and May. The clerk was performing an administrative duty in providing logistical information to newly selected jurors. The clerk obtained telephone numbers of the selected jurors, who were placed on telephone standby and were provided information about where to park and the lunch menu during trial. While the trial court did instruct three jurors with the additional statements as defendants indicated, the trial court also made a similar statement when instructing juror Timothy Hugh Renfrow, but to no other jurors. Later, however, when the trial court instructed alternate juror Audrey Pittman, it stated:
if you will go to the jury deliberation room and wait there for the courtroom clerk, she will come there w
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