A MANUAL OF JURY TRIAL PROCEDURES - 2004
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6.4     New Trial Motion Premised on False Answer During Jury Selection

A new trial may be ordered if the moving party demonstrates "that a juror failed to answer honestly a material question on voir dire, and then further show[s] that a correct response would have provided a valid basis for a challenge for cause." McDonough Power Equipment, Inc. v. Greenwood, 464 U.S. 548, 556 (1984). A mistaken, though honest, response to a question does not meet this test. Pope v. Man-Data, Inc., 209 F.3d 1161, 1163 (9th Cir. 2000). A "new trial is warranted only if the district court finds that the juror's voir dire responses were dishonest, rather than merely mistaken, and that her reasons for making the dishonest response call her impartiality into question." Id. at 1164. But cf. Fields v. Woodford, 309 F.3d 1095, 1105 (9th Cir. 2002) ("it is an open question whether dishonesty is required before bias may be found"), op. amended and superseded on other grounds by 315 F.3d 1062 (9th Cir. 2002). An evidentiary hearing is usually necessary to establish a record upon which the court can make the requisite findings. Id. at 1105-06; Pope, 209 F.3d at 1164.