Opinion ID: 1763781
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Voir dire questioning about serving as foreperson.

Text: During voir dire, various prospective jurors were asked by the prosecutor if he or she could sign the jury verdict form if selected as foreperson and the death penalty were imposed. Hunt cites us to thirteen instances where this question was asked. Various responses were given. Three of the thirteen members who were asked the question served on the jury. Hunt argues that it is prejudicial to permit the Commonwealth to use such questioning to gauge jurors' views on the death penalty and then use the views espoused to obtain a hyper-death qualified jury. He states the Commonwealth is not entitled to excuse those who could not serve as fore-person and sign the death verdict. Hunt concedes that this issue is not preserved. Again, we review unpreserved allegations of error in death penalty cases under the standard established in Cosby v. Commonwealth, 776 S.W.2d 367 (Ky.1989) ( overruled on other grounds by St. Clair v. Roark, 10 S.W.3d 482, 487 (Ky.1999)), and Sanders v. Commonwealth, 801 S.W.2d 665 (Ky.1990), that is, (1) whether there is a reasonable justification or explanation for defense counsel's failure to object, e.g., whether the failure might have been a legitimate trial tactic; and (2) if there is no reasonable explanation, whether the unpreserved error was prejudicial, i.e., whether the circumstances in totality are persuasive that, minus the error, the defendant may not have been found guilty of a capital crime, or the death penalty may not have been imposed. Id. at 668. We first note that there is no allegation that any juror was actually excused for cause based upon his or her answer to the jury foreperson question, be it whether they would or would not have a problem with signing a death sentence verdict. Further it could just as easily be said that the question was equally instructive to the defense in evaluating the leanings of an individual juror and, thus, whether its strategy should be to keep or exclude the juror. Thus, even if asking the question was error, it is difficult to identify any prejudice as a result of it being asked. It follows that absent the asking of the question there is not a reasonable possibility that the verdict or sentence would have been different. In any event, the Ohio Supreme Court recently addressed this same issue in State v. Davis, 116 Ohio St.3d 404, 880 N.E.2d 31 (2008). It answered the question as follows: Such questioning was proper because the relevant inquiry during voir dire in a capital case is whether the juror's beliefs would prevent or substantially impair his or her performance of duties as a juror in accordance with the instructions and the oath. Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. at 424, 105 S.Ct. 844, 83 L.Ed.2d 841. Clearly, a juror who is incapable of signing a death verdict demonstrates substantial impairment in his ability to fulfill his duties. State v. Franklin, 97 Ohio St.3d 1, 2002-Ohio-5304, 776 N.E.2d 26, 34 (Ohio 2002). We believe the rule, as stated in State v. Davis is sound; and, accordingly, no error occurred in questioning jurors upon the issue of whether he or she could sign a death penalty verdict. Moreover, it is absolutely necessary that in all criminal cases, both capital and non-capital, that someone signs the jury verdict as foreperson. It is, therefore, reasonable for either party to inquire of the prospective jurors to determine if any have a conscientious objection to performing that function, lest the court seat a jury that will not return a proper verdict.