Rule 606. Competency of juror as witness

Competency of juror as witness.

(a) At the trial. A member of the jury may not testify as a witness before that jury in the trial of the case in which the juror is sitting. If the juror is called so to testify, the opposing party shall be afforded an opportunity to object out of the presence of the jury.

(b) Inquiry into validity of verdict or indictment. Upon an inquiry into the validity of a verdict or indictment, a juror may not testify in impeachment of the verdict or indictment as to any matter or statement occurring during the course of the jury’s deliberations or to the effect of anything upon that or any other juror’s mind or emotions as influencing the juror to assent to or dissent from the verdict or indictment or concerning the juror’s mental processes in connection therewith, except that a juror may testify on the question whether extraneous prejudicial information was improperly brought to the jury’s attention or whether any outside influence was improperly brought to bear upon any juror. Nor may a juror’s affidavit or evidence of any statement by the juror concerning a matter about which the juror would be precluded from testifying be received for these purposes. Nothing herein precludes a juror from testifying in support of a verdict or indictment.

Committee Notes

Advisory Committee’s Notes Section (a). At the trial. Like its counterpart under the Federal Rules of Evidence, this provision disqualifies a juror from taking the witness stand during the trial of the case in which he or she is sitting. While the opposing party must object to the calling of such a juror as a witness, an opportunity shall be provided for the objection to be made outside the jury’s presence. Rule 606(a) supersedes Ala. Code 1975, § 12-16-7 (insofar as it is interpreted as rendering jurors qualified to be witnesses during the trials in which they sit). Nothing in this rule is intended to relieve jurors of their duty to acknowledge and declare personal knowledge regarding any fact in controversy. Section (b). Inquiry into validity of verdict or indictment. This rule leaves unchanged Alabama’s historic “anti-impeachment” rule. It precludes jurors, when called as witnesses to attack or impeach their own verdict or indictment but not when called to support their verdict or indictment, from testifying to (1) any matter or statement arising during the deliberations of the jury, (2) anything upon their or any juror’s mind or emotions that may have been influential in assenting to or dissenting from the verdict or indictment, or (3) their own mental processes through which they arrived at the verdict or indictment. Preexisting Alabama law has long embraced the general rule that a jury’s verdict may not be impeached by the testimony of the jurors regarding matters that transpired during the deliberations. See, e.g., Carpenter v. State, 400 So.2d 417 (Ala.Crim.App.), cert. denied, 400 So.2d 427 (Ala.1981); Fox v. State, 49 Ala.App. 204, 269 So.2d 917 (1972). Prohibited testimony includes testimony of the mental operations or mental processes of the jurors that caused them to agree or disagree with the verdict. Harrison v. Baker, 260 Ala. 488, 71 So.2d 284 (1954); Clemons v. State, 17 Ala.App. 533, 86 So. 177, cert. denied, 204 Ala. 697, 86 So. 926 (1920). This