Opinion ID: 394829
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Jury Examination

Text: 45 The allegations that the jury examination was unfair is vague and conclusory and Kearney cannot in this greatly delayed § 2255 proceeding raise questions involving the voir dire of the jury that could and should have been raised years earlier on direct appeal, or the court finding excuse therefore, in his first collateral attack seven years ago. Polizzi v. United States, 550 F.2d 1133, 1136-37 (9th Cir. 1976); Stirone v. United States, 341 F.2d 253, 256 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 381 U.S. 902, 85 S.Ct. 1446, 14 L.Ed.2d 284 (1965); Vandergrift v. United States, 313 F.2d 93 (9th Cir. 1963); Jeffers v. United States, 451 F.Supp. 1338, 1343 (N.D.Ind.1978). Jury duty is not a matter of personal choice, but is compulsory on citizens absent justifiable reasons for disqualification. Criminal proceedings are not a card game where one may play a third card if the first two do not win, and then a fourth, etc. Piecemeal litigation is highly objectional. It disrupts the orderly administration of criminal justice and interferes with a speedy trial, which is not outside the due process rights of the government. 46 Also, while the rule is open to some exceptions, in Mitchell v. United States, 259 F.2d 787 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 358 U.S. 850, 79 S.Ct. 81, 3 L.Ed.2d 86 (1958), we held that matters open upon appeal cannot be raised collaterally: 47 Normally, review must come while the matter is fresh, while witnesses, judges and lawyers are available, while memories are accurate.... To permit a convicted person to wait months, or even years as is frequently the case, after the actors have gone and recollections cannot be refreshed, and then to secure review consideration of alleged errors open upon the normal processes of appeal, is to damage, if not destroy, an essential element in the rule of law, the element of accurate impartiality. 48 259 F.2d at 791.