Opinion ID: 158651
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: removal of venire member

Text: 56 Petitioner argues the trial court violated his Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights by improperly removing a venire member for cause without allowing him an opportunity to rehabilitate the juror. 7 '[A] juror may not be challenged for cause based on his views about capital punishment unless those views would prevent or substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath.' Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412, 420 (1985) (quoting Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38, 45 (1980)) (emphasis omitted). A trial judge's determination of a potential juror's bias under this standard is a factual finding entitled to a presumption of correctness. See id. at 428-29 (pre-AEDPA); Davis v. Executive Dir. of Dep't of Corrections, 100 F.3d 750, 777 (10th Cir. 1996) (same); see also Pitsonbarger v. Gramley, 141 F.3d 728, 734 (7th Cir.) (applying AEDPA), cert. denied, 119 S. Ct. 448 (1998); Fuller v. Johnson, 114 F.3d 491, 500-01 (5th Cir. 1997) (same). In making such a determination, the trial judge must assess the credibility of the prospective juror, a task an appellate court cannot easily do based upon a record. See Witt, 469 U.S. at 429; see also Castro v. Ward, 138 F.3d 810, 824 (10th Cir.) (Because issues of credibility and demeanor are crucial to the trial judge's determination, our review of that determination is quite deferential.), cert. denied, 119 S. Ct. 422 (1998). 57 Petitioner argues that a juror who opposes the death penalty may not be excused for cause if he is able to follow the trial judge's instructions and set aside his own beliefs in deference to the law. Here, petitioner maintains the trial judge did not properly question the prospective juror to determine whether he could do so. The following colloquy occurred: 58 THE COURT: Mr. Parrish, I will ask you, the defendant in this case is charged with murder in the first degree. It is your duty to determine whether the defendant is not guilty or guilty of murder in the first degree. 59 The law provides that the punishment for murder in the first degree is life or death. If you find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of murder in the first degree, can you consider both legal punishments, life or death? 60 MR. PARRISH: No. 61 THE COURT: Let me ask you this question, sir. If you found beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was guilty of murder in the first degree and if, under the evidence, facts and circumstances of the case, the law would permit you to consider a sentence of death, are your reservations about the death penalty such that regardless of the law, the facts and circumstances of the case, you would not consider inflicting the death penalty? 62 MR. PARRISH: Yes. 63 Tr. vol. I at 60-61. After the prosecution moved to excuse the juror, defense counsel asked for a bench conference, during which he requested an opportunity to further question the juror. 64 MR. RAVITZ: Judge, we contend that two questions can not properly determine a juror's feelings, and if we're not allowed to explore, this Court can not make any type of factual judgment on it. 65 We would request that we be permitted to ask the juror -- explain to the juror the law, the fact that all he is required to do is consider the death penalty, that this defendant is entitled to a representative jury of his peers, that if the juror wants to consider it and reject it, he has that right to do it as long as he's willing to consider it. 66 That as long as he is willing -- as long as it will not affect his decision on guilt or innocence, he has a right to sit on it. If you don't let me inquire on this, we can't make -- this record will be totally insufficient for an appellate court to review whether this Court was correct in excusing him. 67 When I finish, the Court may be entirely correct in excusing, but I think I'm entitled to that opportunity. 68 Id. at 62-63. The trial court overruled defense counsel's request and excused the juror. 8 69 On direct criminal appeal, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals held that the juror was properly excluded under Witt because the trial court's questioning established he would not consider imposing the death penalty in a proper case. See Moore, 788 P.2d at 397. That court determined the trial court did not err in disallowing further questioning by defense counsel, because further questioning may have resulted in confusion and the relevant questions had been asked and clearly answered. See id. 70 Petitioner contends that the second question asked by the trial court is virtually identical to a question this Court described as 'confusing, and because of its negative phrasing, invites ambiguous answers.' Appellant's Opening Br. at 44 (quoting Davis v. Maynard, 869 F.2d 1401, 1408 (10th Cir. 1989), vacated on other grounds by Saffle v. Davis, 494 U.S. 1050 (1990), opinion reinstated in part by Davis v. Maynard, 911 F.2d 415, 418 (10th Cir. 1990)). The following question was at issue in Davis: 71 If you found beyond a reasonable doubt that the Defendant in this case was guilty of Murder in the First Degree and if under the evidence, facts and circumstances of the case the law would permit you to consider a sentence of death, are your reservations about the Death Penalty such that regardless of the law, the facts and the circumstances of the case, you would not inflict the Death Penalty? 72 Davis, 869 F.2d at 1408. This court determined that a no answer to this question could ambiguously mean either that the juror could not inflict the death penalty despite the law and evidence or that any reservations the juror had would not impair the juror's ability to inflict the proper sentence. See id. at 1408-09. 9 Davis, however, refused to conclude that the exclusion of the juror for cause was reversible error. See id. at 1409. 73 In so refusing, Davis looked to Witt where the Supreme Court established that prospective jurors' bias towards the death penalty need not be proved with 'unmistakable clarity' in order to excuse a juror for cause. Id. (quoting Witt, 469 U.S. at 424). 74 This is because determinations of juror bias cannot be reduced to question-and-answer sessions which obtain results in the manner of a catechism. What common sense should have realized experience has proved: many veniremen simply cannot be asked enough questions to reach the point where their bias has been made unmistakably clear; these veniremen may not know how they will react when faced with imposing the death sentence, or may be unable to articulate, or may wish to hide their true feelings. Despite this lack of clarity in the printed record, however, there will be situations where the trial judge is left with the definite impression that a prospective juror would be unable to faithfully and impartially apply the law. . . .[T]his is why deference must be paid to the trial judge who sees and hears the juror. 75 Witt, 469 U.S. at 424-26 (footnote omitted). Thus, even where there is ambiguity, the trial court, aided by its assessment of the juror's credibility, may resolve the ambiguity in favor of the State. See id. at 434. 76 Nor do we believe the trial court was required to afford petitioner an opportunity to further examine and rehabilitate the juror. [P]art of the guarantee of a defendant's right to an impartial jury is an adequate voir dire to identify unqualified jurors. Morgan v. Illinois, 504 U.S. 719, 729 (1992). Here, the voir dire was adequate to detect whether the prospective juror would have been qualified to serve as a juror. See Yeatts v. Angelone, 166 F.3d 255, 265 (4th Cir.) (corollary of right to impartial jury is requirement of voir dire sufficient to identify unqualified jurors), cert. denied, 119 S. Ct. 1517 (1999). Thus, the trial court was not constitutionally required to grant defense counsel an opportunity to conduct a searching inquiry. Cf. Sellers v. Ward, 135 F.3d 1333, 1341 (10th Cir.) (where defense attorney wanted to inquire whether prospective jurors would find specific facts mitigating), cert. denied, 119 S. Ct. 557 (1998). The trial court's decision not to permit further questioning by defense counsel did not exceed the bounds of that court's considerable discretion. See Neely v. Newton, 149 F.3d 1074, 1083-84 (10th Cir. 1998) (holding federal courts are deferential to what questions should be asked), cert. denied, 119 S. Ct. 877 (1999). Even assuming additional questions would have been helpful, the trial court's failure to allow defense counsel to ask the questions did not render the trial fundamentally unfair. See id. at 1084. 77 Petitioner has failed to rebut the presumption the trial court was correct in finding that the juror's views would have prevented or substantially impaired his performance of his duties as a juror. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals' determination that the juror's answers clearly indicated that he could not consider imposing the death penalty regardless of the evidence and the instructions was not contrary to or an unreasonable application of Witt.