Opinion ID: 1946348
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: excluding a prospective juror for cause, in violation of his right to trial by an impartial jury

Text: It may correctly be said that the right of an accused to be tried by a jury of his or her peers is the foundation of fairness and the hallmark of our judicial system. U.S. Const. Amend. VI; Miss. Const. art. III § 26. This Court and the United States Supreme Court have frequently written of the significance of the jury's role. See, Fuselier v. State, 468 So.2d 45 (1985); Wiley v. State, 449 So.2d 756 (Miss. 1984); Sanders v. State, 440 So.2d 278 (Miss. 1983) and Duren v. Missouri, 439 U.S. 357, 99 S.Ct. 664, 58 L.Ed.2d 579 (1979). In fact, the jury is so engrained in our notion of a trial that it has become the subject of great drama such as Reginald Rose's Twelve Angry Men. Unfortunately the common place acceptance of the jury system sometimes results in taking that right for granted, making the importance of the jury's role not as readily appreciated by those who do not have a direct stake in the outcome of the proceedings. Every trial lawyer and judge is well aware of the difficulties posed by citizens reluctant to give of their time and attention to help administer our system of justice. It was just such reluctance which presented the trial court with some troublesome decisions in the instant case. The voir dire of a jury is important in any case but especially so where the state seeks to impose the death penalty. The nature of the penalty and the strong personal convictions of many prospective jurors have resulted in voir dire proceedings unique to capital cases. Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968); Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 57 L.Ed.2d 973, 9 Ohio Ops.3d 26 (1978); Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38, 100 S.Ct. 2521, 65 L.Ed.2d 581 (1980); Wainwright v. Witt, ___ U.S. ___, 105 S.Ct. 844, 83 L.Ed.2d 841 (1985). In Armstrong v. State, 214 So.2d 589 (Miss. 1968) this Court attempted to provide guidelines by which our trial courts could follow the dictates of Witherspoon: The proper method of bringing the death penalty to the attention of the special veniremen is for the trial judge to inform them that they have been summoned as veniremen in a capital case and that a verdict of guilty could result in the infliction of the death penalty. The judge should then ask them if any member of the panel has any conscientious scruples against the infliction of the death penalty, when the law authorizes it, in proper cases, and where the testimony warrants it. If there are those who say that they are opposed to the death penalty, the trial judge should then go further and ask those veniremen, who have answered in the affirmative, whether or not they could, nevertheless, follow the testimony and the instructions of the court and return a verdict of guilty although that verdict could result in the death penalty, if they, being the judges of the weight and worth of the evidence, were convinced of the guilt of the defendant and the circumstances warranted such a verdict. Those who say that they could follow the evidence and the instructions of the court should be retained, and those who cannot follow the instructions of the court should be released. The mere fact that a venireman is opposed to the death penalty does not disqualify him as a juryman, if he can do his duty as a citizen and juror and follow the instructions of the court, and where he is convinced of the defendant's guilt he can convict him although the verdict of the jury may result in the death penalty's being inflicted upon the defendant. 214 So.2d at 593. Although the United States Supreme Court has refined the Witherspoon decision in Adams, the issue remains the ability of the prospective juror to follow the instructions and the juror's oath. The proper method of determining whether the prospective juror can do that is still for the judge to follow the procedure outlined in Armstrong. Unfortunately that did not occur in the present case and that failure ultimately combined with some prospective jurors' reluctance to serve to create the difficulties we now face. The Harrison County District Attorney conducted the majority of the death penalty voir dire, with the circuit judge participating only when the questions and responses of Mrs. Bounds became so tangled that everyone involved admitted to being confused. That problem notwithstanding, the groundwork for Mrs. Bounds' removal was laid long before any questions were asked of her. When the voir dire began several jurors expressed the sentiment that they had conscientious scruples against the death penalty and could not vote to inflict it under any circumstances. The trial judge refused to excuse those jurors for cause and required the state to exercise peremptory challenges to them. It is abundantly clear from the record that his reason for doing so was because he believed that the jurors were simply claiming to have concientious scruples against the death penalty so that they could be released from jury service. [1] Confronted by what he believed to be insincere attestations of personal moral convictions, the trial court was unwilling to dismiss those jurors for cause even though their responses clearly indicated that they could properly be so dismissed both under Witherspoon and Adams. By the time Mrs. Bounds was voir dired the state had already been forced to use all of its peremptory challenges. As stated above, Mrs. Bounds' voir dire was lengthy and confusing. Nonetheless she positively stated several times that she could vote for the death penalty should the circumstances warrant it. Although her responses were at times equivocal, she was clearly qualified to be seated as a juror under the Adams and Witt criteria. See Fuselier, supra . Because of Mrs. Bounds' equivocation the state sought to excuse her and complained that the trial court had erroneously forced it to use all of its peremptory challenges. The trial judge responded by saying: Well, I think that's right. I made you use about five of them that didn't equivocate. Uh, I never had no idea that we'd run into this many. The trial judge then directed the prosecutor to resume questioning Mrs. Bounds in an effort to get an unequivocable response. She again replied that she could vote for the death penalty. The state then again requested that she be dismissed for cause. The court then ruled as follows: (BY THE COURT: (Interposing) I should have questioned them on this, I guess... ... (BY [DISTRICT ATTORNEY]: (Unable to distinguish Mr. Necaise's remarks as the Court continued talking, at the same time.) (BY THE COURT: ... ... but I never had no idea it was going to... ... (BY [DEFENSE COUNSEL]: (Interposing) Disregarding the evidence... ... (BY THE COURT: ... ... wind up in a mess like this. I'd hate to get a conviction and get it reversed because of this one woman. She can't make up her mind. Well, let the record show that the Court is of the firm opinion that there was at least five, even though I think there's around nine challenges been used by the District Attorney for cause, either eight or nine, all right, there was eight of them that had said that they were against Capital Punishment. And I think there was, uh, five of those that were unequivocally opposed to it and answered, in substance, if not even stronger language than the question set forth in the Witherspoon case, uh, from the United States Supreme Court, uh, that I should, at this point, allow him to challenge this lady for cause. She is totally indecisive. I think she is totally indecisive. She says one thing one time and one thing another. The Court is of the opinion that it cheated the State by making him, uh, use, uh, by making the District Attorney use his peremptory challenges in at least five instances. And I'm going to allow it in this particular case. (BY [DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Excuse her for cause? (BY THE COURT: I'm going to excuse her. (BY [DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Let me ask the Court this, is the Court of the opinion that, uh, that there has been a sufficient record... ... (BY THE COURT: (Interposing) I'm not going to add any to his challenges. (BY [DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Okay. All right. (BY THE COURT: I'm not going to go back and give him five more. I'm going to excuse her for cause. (BY [DEFENSE COUNSEL]: Okay. All right.) (BY THE COURT: You can go, Mrs. Bounds, and call back tomorrow afternoon. Although the route taken to Mrs. Bounds' dismissal was a circuitous one indeed, and most highly disfavored, it should be obvious to all that no prejudice occurred to the defendant Gray. The force and effect of the trial court's ruling was to correct an error he had committed in refusing to dismiss other jurors for cause after they had unequivocably stated that they could not vote to impose the death penalty in any circumstance. Certainly the state is entitled to a jury that can follow the instructions and juror's oath. Adams, supra ; Witt, supra . That being the case the trial court was correct when it recognized the error in its prior rulings and took affirmative action to correct that error. We have recognized in numerous cases that a trial court should be afforded the opportunity to correct any errors at trial by way of a motion for a new trial. House v. State, 445 So.2d 815, 819 (Miss. 1984); Read v. State, 430 So.2d 832, 838 (Miss. 1983); Johnson v. State, 404 So.2d 553, 556 (Miss. 1981); Tribbett v. State, 394 So.2d 878, 880-81 (Miss. 1981). There is no logical reason not to allow the trial court in this situation to correct its erroneous ruling prior to the empanelling of the jury and termination of trial. Notions of judicial economy make it clear that the trial court should be allowed to recognize and correct its error early in the proceedings, especially where as here, there could have been no possible prejudice to the defendant. That being the case, we find no merit to Gray's final assignment of error. Finally, we have closely examined the record in the instant case and unequivocably find that Gray's murder of Wojcik warranted the death penalty. A comparison of this case with our cases decided after Jackson v. State, 337 So.2d 1242 (Miss. 1976), in which the death penalty has been imposed and upheld reveals that such penalty is neither wanton, freakish, excessive, nor disproportionate to the sentences imposed in those cases. (See Appendix A) His execution would be consistent and even handed with all the post- Jackson cases previously affirmed by us. Based on all of the foregoing, we hereby affirm DAVID RANDOLPH GRAY'S verdict of guilty and sentence of death. That sentence is to be carried out in the manner prescribed by law on the 26th day of June, 1985. AFFIRMED. AS TO PART I: All Justices concur. AS TO PART II: WALKER and ROY NOBLE LEE, P.JJ., and HAWKINS, PRATHER and ANDERSON, JJ., concur as to Part II. PATTERSON, C.J., and SULLIVAN and ROBERTSON, JJ., dissent as to Part II.