Is it structural error for a district court to allow a jury to listen to audio tapes that had not been played during the trial?

Another obstacle to harmless-error review of an erroneous denial of peremptory challenge is the dearth of information concerning what went on in the jury room. To subject the denial of a peremptory challenge to harmless-error analysis would require appellate courts to do the impossible: to reconstruct what went on in jury deliberations through nothing more than post-trial hearings and sheer speculation. In the context of an appeal based on denial of a peremptory challenge, there is inadequate evidence for an appellate court to determine the degree of harm resulting from the seating of a juror despite a defendant's attempted peremptory strike. See also United States v. Noushfar, 78 F.3d 1442, 1445-46 (9th Cir.1996) (holding that it was structural error for district court to allow jury to listen to audio tapes that had not been played during the trial, and emphasizing that reviewing court "cannot assess the impact" on the jury's deliberations); Guam v. Marquez, 963 F.2d 1311, 1316 (9th Cir.1992) (holding that it was structural error for trial court to give written instructions to jury in lieu of reading them in open court, and explaining that the error "prevents an appellate court from conducting a harmless error analysis because the record is silent regarding whether any of the jurors read the instructions," making it "impossible to determine if [the] error was prejudicial.").