Opinion ID: 1237936
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Juror-challenge Issues

Text: Defendant disputes various trial court rulings that denied defense challenges for cause, granted prosecution challenges for cause, and excused one sitting juror. He asserts that the rulings denied him these rights under the federal Constitution: the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel, the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment right to due process of law, and the Eighth Amendment right to reliable guilt and penalty determinations in a capital case. We find no error in these rulings.
In January 1986, in the midst of the guilt phase of the trial, the prosecutor informed the trial court he had recently learned that Juror Number Three had been far less than candid during voir dire. In December 1963, Juror Number Three had begun serving a sentence in the Oregon State Correctional Institution for assault with a dangerous weapon. In 1967, he had been paroled to California, where he was supervised by Dick Wild, a prosecution witness in the current proceeding. In October 1972, the Governor of Oregon had granted Juror Number Three a full pardon. In December 1976, Humboldt County District Attorney John Buffington had charged Juror Number Three by complaint with assault with a deadly weapon (§ 245). Juror Number Three had secured a dismissal of the Humboldt County charge before the preliminary hearing, after which he had filed an action, which the court eventually dismissed in 1983 for failure to prosecute, against District Attorney Buffington and others. Buffington was later appointed to the superior court; he was the trial judge in the current proceeding. Juror Number Three had revealed none of this information during voir dire, even though all prospective jurors had been asked by questionnaire whether they had been involved in a criminal proceeding as a defendant or witness. Juror Number Three had responded to this question with the statement that he had once been a witness. When asked if he knew any of the prosecution witnesses, Juror Number Three said he knew Dick Wild through an organization called Toastmasters International; he never revealed that Wild had been his parole officer. The trial court questioned Juror Number Three about the matter. The juror admitted he had been guilty of the Oregon offense, to which he had pleaded guilty, but he said he had relied on a legal interpretation he had received from the State of Oregon stating that a full pardon totally obliterates a conviction. He said he saw no reason to mention, when asked about his relationship with Wild, that Wild had been his parole officer because it was over and done. He said he was not guilty of the Humboldt County offense, and he had not thought it necessary to disclose the charge because it had been dismissed. He admitted that the Humboldt County charge had ruined a military career for him, but he denied harboring any grudges against the system. He said he could be fair and impartial to both sides in this case. The prosecutor moved to disqualify Juror Number Three from the jury. Defense counsel opposed the motion. [7] The trial court excused Juror Number Three and substituted an alternate juror in his place, explaining that by concealing material information about the Oregon offense Juror Number Three had denied the prosecution the opportunity to intelligently exercise its peremptory challenges. A sitting juror can be removed only for illness or other good cause. (§ 1089.) (14) An appellate court reviews a trial court's finding of good cause under the deferential abuse-of-discretion standard. ( People v. Abbott (1956) 47 Cal.2d 362, 371 [303 P.2d 730]; People v. Thomas (1990) 218 Cal. App.3d 1477, 1484 [267 Cal. Rptr. 865]; People v. Goins (1981) 118 Cal. App.3d 923, 926 [173 Cal. Rptr. 655].) (15) When the trial court discovers during trial that a juror misrepresented or concealed material information on voir dire tending to show bias, the trial court may discharge the juror if, after examination of the juror, the record discloses reasonable grounds for inferring bias as a demonstrable reality, even though the juror continues to deny bias. ( People v. Farris (1977) 66 Cal. App.3d 376, 386-387 [136 Cal. Rptr. 45]; see also People v. Hecker (1990) 219 Cal. App.3d 1238, 1244-1245 [268 Cal. Rptr. 884].) Here, the information concealed [8] by Juror Number Three was material. When considered in light of the juror's conduct in concealing it during voir dire, that information established substantial grounds for inferring that Juror Number Three was biased against the prosecution, despite his protestations to the contrary. (See People v. Morris (1991) 53 Cal.3d 152, 183-184 [279 Cal. Rptr. 720, 807 P.2d 949] [Concealment by a potential juror constitutes implied bias justifying disqualification].) The trial court did not abuse its discretion in discharging Juror Number Three and seating an alternate in his place.
(16) Defendant contends the trial court erred in denying defense challenges for cause to 11 prospective jurors. Defendant is precluded from making this contention, however, by the failure to exhaust peremptory challenges. The defense used peremptory challenges to remove 7 of the 11 jurors he now contends should have been removed for cause. Of the 4 remaining jurors, 2 were selected as regular jurors and 2 as alternates. When the defense accepted the jury, it had 8 peremptory challenges it could have used against the 2 regular jurors it had challenged for cause. When it accepted the alternates, the defense had 2 peremptory challenges it could have used against the 2 alternates it had challenged for cause. Because the defense had sufficient peremptory challenges remaining to remove each of the jurors unsuccessfully challenged for cause, defendant cannot have been prejudiced by the trial court's failure to sustain the challenges for cause. ( People v. Morris, supra, 53 Cal.3d 152, 184; People v. Stankewitz (1990) 51 Cal.3d 72, 103 [270 Cal. Rptr. 817, 793 P.2d 23]; People v. Coleman (1988) 46 Cal.3d 749, 770 [251 Cal. Rptr. 83, 759 P.2d 1260].) Defendant argues that his failure to exhaust peremptory challenges is excused because the trial court used a jury selection system under which counsel knew the order in which prospective jurors would be called into the box. We rejected the same argument in People v. Morris, supra, 53 Cal.3d 152, reasoning that, regardless of the system used, a party's failure to exercise available peremptory challenges indicates relative satisfaction with the unchallenged jurors. (At p. 185.) As another excuse for the failure to exhaust peremptory challenges, defendant points out that the pool of 20 prospective jurors remaining after the jurors and alternates had been accepted included 6 more prospective jurors the defense had unsuccessfully challenged for cause. We reject this excuse for the same reason. Defendant has not shown that exhausting his remaining peremptories would necessarily have resulted in the seating of a juror who ought to have been removed for cause. In this situation, his failure to exhaust peremptories waived the contention that defense challenges for cause were erroneously overruled.
(17) Defendant contends the trial court erroneously excused two prospective jurors, on prosecution challenges for cause, because of the jurors' death penalty views. In a capital case, a prospective juror may be excluded if the juror's views on capital punishment would prevent or substantially impair the performance of the juror's duties. ( Wainwright v. Witt (1985) 469 U.S. 412, 424 [83 L.Ed.2d 841, 851, 105 S.Ct. 844]; People v. Ghent (1987) 43 Cal.3d 739, 767 [239 Cal. Rptr. 82, 739 P.2d 1250].) During the voir dire, prospective juror Janet Ohligschlager answered correct when asked if her opinion concerning the death penalty was such that she would be unable to vote for it even though the evidence indicated it was a proper punishment. Under questioning by the defense, she said she could try to put aside her personal feelings about the death penalty and consider the evidence presented by both sides. When again questioned by the court, Ohligschlager said she did not think she could conceive of any situation in which she would vote for the death penalty. Prospective juror Sandy Natt also expressed serious reservations about his ability to return a verdict of death. As he put it, ... to take a life, I don't know if I could handle that. Asked whether he would be able to vote for death, he said, I don't think I could. He also indicated, in response to defense questioning, that he could consider the evidence presented by both sides. Asked by the prosecutor whether he could return a verdict of death, Natt said, Might be  if he had enough real bad stuff about him, maybe I could. But I don't really think I could. We find no error in the rulings sustaining the challenges for cause to these prospective jurors. Each juror gave answers showing substantial impairment of the juror's ability to fairly decide the issue of penalty. To the extent the jurors' other answers were conflicting or ambiguous, the trial court's implied determination as to their states of mind is binding upon this court. ( People v. Daniels (1991) 52 Cal.3d 815, 875 [277 Cal. Rptr. 122, 802 P.2d 906].)