Opinion ID: 1454621
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Trial Court's Denial of Defendant's Challenges for Cause of Six Prospective Jurors Because of Their Attitudes About the Death Penalty

Text: (5a) Defendant assails the trial court's decisions overruling challenges for cause to six prospective jurors who he claims were prejudicially disposed toward the death penalty. We reject his argument for several reasons. None of the challenged jurors sat on defendant's jury. Defendant excused two of them by peremptory challenge, but used only six of his twenty-two peremptory challenges. (6) In order to complain on appeal about the trial court's decisions overruling his challenges for cause, defendant must show: (1) he used a peremptory challenge to remove the juror in question; (2) he exhausted his peremptory challenges or can justify his failure to do so; and (3) he was dissatisfied with the jury as selected. ( People v. Bittaker (1989) 48 Cal.3d 1046, 1087 [259 Cal. Rptr. 630, 774 P.2d 659]; People v. Coleman (1988) 46 Cal.3d 749, 770-771 [251 Cal. Rptr. 83, 759 P.2d 1260]; Ross v. Oklahoma (1988) 487 U.S. 81 [101 L.Ed.2d 80, 108 S.Ct. 2273].) (5b) Defendant fails the last two essential elements of the test. He did not exhaust his peremptory challenges; he offers no legally sufficient excuse for failing to do so. (See, in contrast, People v. Box (1984) 152 Cal. App.3d 461, 465-466 [199 Cal. Rptr. 532] [reversing conviction when defendant was allowed only 10 of the 26 peremptory challenges to which he was entitled and explained his failure to exercise the 10th challenge by observing that he could not have removed the 5 or 6 unfavorable jurors with his single remaining challenge and that he risked obtaining a more unfavorable juror from the remaining venire if the challenge were exercised].) Defendant's conduct indicated no dissatisfaction with the jury that heard his case  a jury that included none of the persons he unsuccessfully sought to challenge for cause. Defendant seeks to distinguish the case law, observing that previous decisions did not involve the so-called struck jury system of jury selection that was used in this case. (See, e.g., United States v. Ricks (4th Cir.1986) 802 F.2d 731, 733.) We described one variation of the struck jury system in our recent opinion in People v. Wright (1990) 52 Cal.3d 367, 395-398 [276 Cal. Rptr. 731, 802 P.2d 221]. (7) Under the standard or jury box system of jury selection used in our state, 12 jurors are voir dired, subjected to challenges for cause, and replaced until 12 qualified jurors remain. Both sides then exercise peremptory challenges. A juror removed by peremptory challenge is replaced by another juror who is voir dired and then challenged both for cause and peremptorily. This process continues until peremptory challenges have been exhausted or waived. The 12 remaining persons become the jury. At defendant's request, a variation of the struck jury system was used in this case instead of the jury box system. Prospective jurors were first individually voir dired and challenged for cause. As a result of this process, a panel of 76 persons was found qualified. A randomly ordered list of the qualified persons was given to both sides showing the order in which these persons would be called to sit as jurors. Starting from the beginning of the list, each side exercised its peremptory challenges until they were exhausted or waived. The first 12 persons remaining on the list became the jury. Defendant observes that in the jury box system a party exercising a peremptory challenge does not know whether, from his point of view, the next juror will be better or worse. In the struck jury system, the parties know what the entire panel looks like from the individual voir dire examinations. Thus, each party can develop an ongoing sense as to whether the exercise of each peremptory challenge is likely to yield a more or less favorable jury. This difference was undoubtedly the reason defendant requested the struck system. (5c) Defendant reasons that he should not be required to exercise all of his peremptory challenges under a struck jury system in order to assign error in refusing challenges for cause. His argument is a non sequitur. The difference between the two systems bears no relationship to the requirement that a defendant exercise peremptory challenges to exclude jurors he believes to be biased against him. Regardless of the system of jury selection, a party's failure to exercise available peremptory challenges indicates relative satisfaction with the unchallenged jurors. Having so indicated in this case, defendant cannot reasonably claim error. He is entitled to an impartial jury, not to one of his own choosing. ( People v. Bittaker, supra, 48 Cal.3d 1046, 1087.) He makes no showing that the jury hearing his case was anything but impartial. [4] (8) As we did in Wright, supra, we caution trial courts against experimentation with statutory jury selection procedures in capital cases: [A]dherence to the Legislature's prescribed jury selection procedures remains the proper and authorized way to ensure selection of a fair and impartial jury. (52 Cal.3d at p. 398.)