Opinion ID: 1214235
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Break from precedent in petitioner's direct appeal

Text: Our 1990 decision in petitioner's case sets out a three-step analysis on the issue of juror qualification. The defendant must first show he exhausted all of his peremptory challenges; if all peremptory strikes were used, we will consider whether the juror was erroneously qualified. If the juror was erroneously qualified, the defendant must then demonstrate he was deprived of a fair trial. We found Juror Canty should have been disqualified because voir dire indicated he was racially biased. We concluded, however, that petitioner failed to satisfy the third requirement for reversalthat he was deprived of a fair trialbecause the erroneously qualified juror did not in fact sit on the jury. Petitioner therefore failed to show prejudice from Juror Canty's erroneous qualification. Petitioner argues that before the decision in his case, we did not apply this third step of the analysis and would have reversed where the defendant demonstrated only the first two steps-that he used all his peremptory strikes and that the juror was erroneously qualified. He relies primarily on State v. Sanders, 103 S.C. 216, 88 S.E. 10 (1916). In Sanders, we reversed where a juror was erroneously qualified, the defendant struck the juror, and the defendant exhausted all his peremptory strikes. We essentially presumed prejudice from the defendant's exhaustion of his peremptory strikes. [1] Petitioner claims under this precedent, the fact Juror Canty did not sit should not have been considered. The State, however, argues there is intervening precedent of this Court undermining the rule in Sanders by the time petitioner's direct appeal was decided in 1990. In State v. Plath, 277 S.C. 126, 284 S.E.2d 221 (1981), overruled on other grounds, State v. Collins, 329 S.C. 23, 495 S.E.2d 202 (1998), we found the defendant had failed to show prejudice from the refusal to allow a belated peremptory strike because there was no showing of any juror bias. We relied on Plath in 1982 and held in State v. Yates, 280 S.C. 29, 310 S.E.2d 805 (1982), that where the defendant had suffered no actual juror prejudice, his motion for additional peremptory strikes was properly denied. The State claims these cases indicate the deprivation of a peremptory strike would no longer be treated as reversible error per se, thus undermining the prong of the analysis for improperly qualified jurors that required no prejudice based on the exhaustion of all peremptory strikes. [2] In any event, assuming our 1990 decision in petitioner's case broke from precedent and applied a new procedural rule, the question is: Does the overruling of precedent and the application of a new rule violate any constitutional right? The answer to this question is clearly no. The United States Supreme Court, for instance, in Payne v. Tennessee, 501 U.S. 808, 111 S.Ct. 2597, 115 L.Ed.2d 720 (1991), overruled its own precedent and applied a new rule to the defendant's detriment allowing the admission of victim impact evidence in a death penalty case. The Court noted that stare decisis is not an inexorable command. 501 U.S. at 828, 111 S.Ct. 2597, 115 L.Ed.2d 720. Where the issue is a rule of procedure, the Court is even less constrained by precedent because a procedural rule does not serve as a guide to lawful behavior and does not alter primary conduct. Hohn v. United States, 524 U.S. 236, 251, 118 S.Ct. 1969, 141 L.Ed.2d 242 (1998); United States v. Gaudin, 515 U.S. 506, 521, 115 S.Ct. 2310, 132 L.Ed.2d 444 (1995); Payne, 501 U.S. at 828, 111 S.Ct. 2597, 115 L.Ed.2d 720. No constitutional right is implicated where precedent is overruled in favor of the application of a new procedural rule. In conclusion, even if our three-step analysis in petitioner's direct appeal overruled precedent and created a new rule, we violated no constitutional mandate in applying that rule to petitioner. The essential issue in this habeas proceeding is whether there has been a constitutional violation that amounted to a denial of fundamental fairness shocking to the universal sense of justice. We find no denial of fundamental fairness. Petitioner's constitutional right to a fair trial by an unbiased jury was in no way compromised. We find petitioner's argument on this issue without merit.