Opinion ID: 574964
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Jury Selection Process

Text: 7 Christoffel argues that the jury selection process employed by the district court restricted his right to intelligently exercise his peremptory challenges. The government's only dispute is with Christoffel's factual account of the process. Even though Christoffel's version is the correct one, we find no error. 8 In this case, the district court followed the so-called Arizona method of jury selection. Under that method, the clerk draws a number of names from the pool of potential jurors. The members of the venire so drawn all undergo voir dire. When a member is excused for cause, a replacement is selected from the courtroom pool. Once all challenges for cause have been made, the prosecutor and the defendant then exercise their peremptory challenges to excuse venire members. So long as the original venire was of the correct size, 1 this system assures that a sufficient number of members will survive the peremptory challenge process to form the jury. 9 In this case, the district court did not replace the members of the venire who were struck for cause with potential jurors from the pool. Accordingly, after both the government and Christoffel had exercised all of their peremptory challenges for regular jurors, only 11 jurors remained in the box. At that point, the district court ordered another name drawn and a member of the pool was seated on the jury. This juror had not been a candidate for peremptory challenge by either side. 2 At no point did Christoffel attempt to strike the twelfth juror. 10 Christoffel argues that the district court's failure to make provision to allow him the choice of striking the twelfth juror constituted reversible error. Christoffel relies on United States v. Springfield, 829 F.2d 860 (9th Cir.1987). The jury selection process in Springfield was similar to the one in this case. After both sides had exercised all of their peremptory challenges, only 11 jurors remained in the box prompting the district court to select a member of the pool to sit on the jury. In that case, however, the district court permitted the defendant to exchange one of his earlier exercised peremptory challenges for a challenge against the twelfth juror. In upholding this decision, this court suggested other methods which the district court also could have employed to alleviate the problem. Id. at 864. Christoffel argues that since none of these methods was used in his case, reversible error was committed. 11 Christoffel's argument fails because he made no attempt to strike the twelfth juror. After the extra juror was seated in Springfield, the defendant specifically requested that the court grant him an extra peremptory challenge to strike this juror. No such request was made in this case. Christoffel exercised all ten of his allotted strikes and exhibited no desire to strike the extra juror. Accordingly, this case involves no restriction of Christoffel's right to exercise his peremptory challenges. United States v. Turner, 558 F.2d 535, 538 (9th Cir.1977).II. Sufficiency of the Evidence 12 Christoffel next argues that there was insufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict that he knowingly and intentionally imported marijuana. This court reviews such a challenge to determine if the evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to the government, would support a finding by any rational trier of fact that the defendant was guilty of each essential element of the crime charged. United States v. Pemberton, 853 F.2d 730, 733 (9th Cir.1988). In importation cases involving large quantities of narcotics, circumstantial evidence may prove knowledge or intent. United States v. Barbosa, 906 F.2d 1366 (9th Cir.1990), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 394, 112 L.Ed.2d 403 (1990). 13 At trial, the government presented uncontroverted evidence that defendant was spotted in the Arizona desert, 20 yards from an unofficial gate on the U.S.-Mexico border, driving a car rapidly away from Mexico, hauling 242 pounds of marijuana--some of it in the back seat. Government agents testified that they could see for up to two miles in every direction. When Christoffel realized that the agents were on his tail, he commenced a dramatic 25-mile flight--the last five of which Christoffel negotiated while one of his rear wheels was rolling on the rim. 14 The evidence satisfies Pemberton.