February 21, 2017
In 1995, John Lepore was a juror in the Vermont capital murder case of Donald Fell, who was convicted and sentenced to death (Vermont doesn’t have the death penalty, but this was tried in the federal court). It subsequently came to light that, while serving as a juror, Lepore, in violation of the judge’s admonitions to the contrary, went to the crime scene and then shared his observations with other jurors. Lepore later provided Fell’s attorney with an affidavit swearing that he had gone to the crime scene and, based in large measure on Lepore’s affidavit, Fell’s conviction was vacated.
Then Lepore got into a bit of a jam.
At a hearing in front of the federal judge, Lepore denied having gone to the scene or sharing that information with the other jurors. But not only did the judge have Lepore’s sworn affidavit in his hands, he heard testimony from Lepore’s then-girlfriend who tagged along on his field trip, and the testimony of a subsequent girlfriend with whom he talked about that endeavor.
Then things got even worse. In August of 2014, a newspaper ran an article identifying Lepore as the juror responsible for the mess. The newspaper also described him as an employee of Vermont’s Agency of Transportation, and quoted the federal court’s findings, which threw around words like “brazen disobedience,” and “dishonesty.”
The AOT then conducted its own internal investigation and, when all was said and done, Lepore was fired for his misconduct as a juror and his subsequent dishonesty before the court. Lepore appealed his firing to the Vermont Supreme Court and, last December, the Court upheld the firing.
Bottom line: (1) Follow the court’s instructions. (2) If you decide to ignore (1), don’t bring someone along with you when you do so. (3) If you decide to ignore (1) and (2), don’t talk about it. (4) If you decide to ignore (1), (2) and (3), don’t lie about it in front of the judge.