Opinion ID: 1060577
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 14

Heading: limitation of juror questioning

Text: The defendant's contention that the trial court restricted his questioning of potential jurors is also without merit. During voir dire proceedings, after defense counsel had asked a number of questions to potential jurors, the state requested a bench conference. The state objected to the relevance of the questions being asked by defense counsel. At the end of the discussion, the trial court indicated that at some point I'm goingI'm going to cut you off, and we're going to do rounds on these people. It's now [four] o'clock. Before we go forward I'm going to stand them up and let them stretch. They (sic) been in here for fifty minutes or so. If you use twentyand I'm not suggesting you shouldbut if you have a lot more to askin about ten or fifteen more minutes I'm probably going to cut you off. At the end of the questioning of this particular group of jurors, another bench conference was held. The following discussion took place: MR. JEFFRESS: I want toperhaps this is not the time, but I think that I have to object to being cut off on the voir dire. THE COURT: I haven't cut you off yet. MR. JEFFRESS: Well THE COURT: I told you I was going to cut you off in fifteen minutes, but I wasn't. MR. JEFFRESS: Well, I feel like I have been. THE COURT: If you want to ask some other questions, you can do that. MR. JEFFRESS: No, I think we've done(Inaudible phrase) THE COURT: Okay. Your objection is noted for the record and is recorded in support of this. MR. JEFFRESS: Okay. The record reflects that the trial court did not cut off defense counsel's opportunity to question the potential jurors. Counsel was given a second opportunity to question the potential jurors after raising his objection at the bench but did not do so. Accordingly, it was not the trial court that limited the questions asked by defense counsel. This issue is without merit.