Opinion ID: 2514211
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Care exercised and difficulty of jury selection

Text: Clark argues that 114 prospective jurors were individually questioned during voir dire and of those, 97 were aware of the pretrial publicity; 17 were not. Only nine jurors, Clark alleges, who were not excused for hardship or for their views of the death penalty, had not heard of the case. Twelve of the remaining jurorsapproximately 15 percent of the remaining panel, Clark calculates were excused for cause for having formed an opinion as to guilt based on the pretrial publicity. Clark points to Janice Preston, number 2 (RP (Mar. 3, 1997) at 52-54 (individual preliminary voir dire)), as one seated juror who stated during voir dire that she recalled the publicity and recalled that she felt at the time that Clark was guilty. However Ms. Preston also stated in voir dire that she could put aside that opinion and decide the case on the evidence. Beyond Ms. Preston, Clark further submits that only one of the seated jurors expressly disavowed prior knowledge about the crime. The state quibbles with Clark's arithmetic, arguing that most jurors who were excused expressed a hardship or strong views about the death penalty. The state maintains that only eight prospective jurors out of the entire panel were excused for bias borne out of pretrial publicity. Whether it was 1 seated juror, 8 prospective jurors, or 12 prospective jurors out of a panel of 114, there is nevertheless no evidence presented of such an overwhelming pretrial bias amongst the panel members that a fair and impartial jury could not be selected.