Pubdate: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 Source: Associated Press Copyright: 1999 Associated Press U.S. COURT OVERTURNS JUROR'S CONTEMPT CONVICTION DENVER, - A Colorado appeals court overturned the conviction of a juror who was held in contempt of court because she did not reveal her opposition to narcotics laws when she was selected to a jury in a drug case. The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that Laura Kriho, 35, should receive a new trial because the judge who found her in contempt in 1996 improperly considered testimony about what Kriho told fellow panelists during jury deliberations. The judge in the 1996 case concluded that Kriho had obstructed justice and ordered her to pay a $1,200 fine for contempt. Kriho appealed, contending that the jury system was threatened by the prosecution of a juror. Kriho served as a juror in a 1994 case in a rural mountain county west of Denver where a 19-year-old woman was charged with possessing methamphetamine. Kriho was the lone holdout in the trial, which ended in a mistrial. At her contempt trial, Kriho's fellow jurors testified that she argued that drug cases should be handled by families and not by courts. She also urged jurors not to convict the methamphetamine defendant because of what Kriho considered the harshness of the potential penalty. During jury selection, Kriho failed to disclose that 11 years earlier she had pleaded guilty to possessing the hallucinogenic drug LSD and is a member of a group that supports the legalization of marijuana. The appeals court ruled 2-1 that Kriho's conviction must be overturned because the judge in her contempt trial improperly invaded the sanctity of the jury's right to secrecy by considering what Kriho said during deliberations. If Kriho is retried, evidence of her opposition to drug laws cannot be considered because there is not sufficient evidence of it except for what she said during the secret deliberations, the appeals court said in a 62-page decision. It also noted that contempt proceedings against jurors "have been exceptionally rare" in the United States. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea