United States v. Yarborough, James H.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge RANDOLPH.

RANDOLPH, Circuit Judge.

James Yarborough appeals his conviction, after a jury trial, for illegally possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. Yar-borough'argues that his conviction was the product of coercion resulting both from the district judge’s ex parte and allegedly intrusive interchanges with the jury, and from the judge’s delivery of a nonstandard anti-deadlock charge.

On a winter night in January 2003, the police received a report about gunshots coming from a fenced field adjacent to a junior high school. Two uniformed officers…