Despite their overall rarity in American history, “nameless juries have progressed from a judicial fluke to a well-established departure from ordinary procedure, and a measure which some authorities argue seriously should be ordinary procedure.”
[5] Today, every federal judicial circuit, excluding the 10th Circuit, has approved of the use of anonymous juries.
[6] This past summer, for instance, a federal judge in Brooklyn ordered the empanelment of an anonymous jury in the criminal trial of an al Qaeda terrorist who threatened to kill prosecutors and court staff.
[7]More troubling is the practice of trial courts in Los Angeles County of withholding juror names in the majority of criminal cases.
[8] Even in situations where courts decide to disclose the identities of jurors to the parties, they may refuse to disclose such information to members of the news media.
[9]
Moreover, at least one federal statute would seemingly permit the use of anonymous juries. The Jury Selection and Service Act states that each district court shall put into operation a written plan for the random selection of jurors that fixes “the time when the names drawn from the qualified jury wheel shall be disclosed to parties and to the public.”
[19] That Act also states, however, that judges may keep the names of jurors “confidential in any case where the interests of justice so require.”
[20]
The right of access to juror names and addresses | Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Jury tampering is the crime of attempting to influence a jury through other means than the evidence presented in court, such as conversations about the case outside the court, offering bribes, making threats or asking acquaintances to interfere with a juror.
A person commits the crime of jury tampering if, with intent to influence a juror's vote, opinion, decision or other action in the case, he attempts directly or indirectly to communicate with a juror other than as part of the proceedings in the trial of the case. Jury tampering may be committed by conducting conversations about the case outside the court, offering bribes, making threats or asking acquaintances to communicate with a juror.
Jury Tampering Law and Legal Definition | USLegal, Inc.