Opinion ID: 2635626
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Juror Privacy and the Impartial Jury Right

Text: ¶ 35 In order to ensure a defendant receives a fair jury trial, the court must facilitate processes that allow a defendant to make his case before an impartial jury; article I, section 22 guarantees this right. An impartial jury is comprised of individual jurors who have the ability and willingness to decide a case free of bias and on the evidence presented at trial. In order to empanel an impartial jury, the parties may engage in voir dire. Voir dire plays a critical role in ensuring a fair trial because it allows counsel to inquire into potential bias. ¶ 36 In cases such as this involving sexual abuse, counsel may voir dire jurors about experiences that may touch on deeply personal issues that might affect their ability to be fair and impartial. Jurors' willing and truthful disclosure of private information regarding such experiences is essential to ensuring the defendant's impartial jury right. Without jurors' disclosures, counsel cannot effectively exercise challenges to remove biased jurors from the venire. ¶ 37 However, public exposure of jurors' personal experiences can be both embarrassing and perhaps painful for jurors. Jurors may have good reasons for keeping their personal information out of the public domain. Therefore, in cases such as this one, courts must allow counsel to conduct voir dire in a way that facilitates candidness, safeguards juror privacy, and enables parties to vet biased and partial jurors. That is exactly what the trial judge did in this case by closing a portion of voir dire to the public. Had the judge failed to do so, counsel would not only have undermined the court's procedural assurances that juror information will remain private but also would have jeopardized jurors' candidness and potentially the defendant's right to an impartial jury.