Opinion ID: 1868888
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Method of Selecting Tales Jurors

Text: Defendant argues that the trial court erred in permitting a deputy to select tales jurors from among the bystanders in the courthouse. Defendant avers, inter alia, that this practice of selecting bystander jurors violated his rights to a jury selected at random and to a jury that represents a fair cross-section of the community. LA.CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 784 (West 1981); LA. SUP.CT. R. 25, § 1. Further, defendant avers, assuming arguendo that the practice of summoning bystander jurors is constitutional, that the trial court erred in allowing a deputy to make the selections in the instant case because (1) there was a great potential for bias, as the victim was a fellow law enforcement officer and (2) other members of the sheriff's department participated in the investigation. In addressing defendant's argument, it must first be noted that the defendant did not lodge a contemporaneous objection to either the method or manner used to select tales jurors during voir dire. Nonetheless, defendant argues that this Court should not extend the Taylor rule [4] to bar review of unobjected to errors that occur during voir dire, as such errors affect both the guilt and penalty phases. We need not, however, reach that issue in this case. For reasons to be given hereafter, we will vacate the defendant's sentence. Therefore, we can pretermit consideration of other alleged errors that relate to the penalty phase. Accordingly, in this case, the unobjected to error at issue would affect only the guilt phase. As such, the error falls squarely under the Taylor rule and, thus, lacks merit. [5]