Opinion ID: 1293219
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Witt/Witherspoon Error

Text: (30) Two prospective jurors stated during the sequestered voir dire that they could not vote for the death penalty. Defendant asserts their exclusion resulted in a jury that was unduly death prone. ( Witherspoon v. Illinois (1968) 391 U.S. 510, 521-523 [20 L.Ed.2d 776, 784-785, 88 S.Ct. 1770].) In support, he relies on Witherspoon 's mandate that a juror cannot be excluded for views against the death penalty unless he makes it unmistakably clear that those views would force him to vote against death regardless of the instructions or the evidence, or would prevent him from judging fairly defendant's guilt or innocence. (391 U.S. at pp. 522-523, fn. 21 [20 L.Ed.2d at p. 785].) The United States Supreme Court restricted Witherspoon in Wainwright v. Witt (1985) 469 U.S. 412 [83 L.Ed.2d 841, 105 S.Ct. 844], holding that a juror need not make his attitude against the death penalty unmistakably clear in order to be properly excluded; rather, Witt held, the correct standard for exclusion is whether a prospective juror's views on capital punishment would `prevent or substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath.' (469 U.S. at p. 424 [83 L.Ed.2d at p. 852].) We recently adopted the Witt standard in People v. Ghent (1987) 43 Cal.3d 739, 767 [239 Cal. Rptr. 82, 739 P.2d 1250], and have applied the standard in subsequent cases. (See People v. Guzman (1988) 45 Cal.3d 915, 955 [248 Cal. Rptr. 467, 755 P.2d 917].) Our review of the voir dire shows that each of the two challenged jurors expressed views that made it clear that he would feel forced to vote against death regardless of the law or evidence presented. [21] Thus, their exclusion was proper under Witt 's holding that jurors may be excluded once the court has determined from their responses that their views would have substantially impaired their performance as jurors at the penalty phase. ( Witt, supra, 469 U.S. at p. 424 [83 L.Ed.2d at pp. 852-853]; Guzman, supra, 45 Cal.3d at p. 956.)