Opinion ID: 2618245
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Failure to Reopen Witherspoon Voir Dire

Text: (5) Following completion of the Witherspoon voir dire, prospective juror Brown sent a letter to the court, explaining that from the tenor of the general voir dire of other prospective jurors, it seemed unlikely to him that defense counsel would permit him to remain on the jury. Brown explained in the letter that his female cousin had been murdered in San Francisco and the killer never found. In addition, his nephew was slain in his presence at a party. The nephew shot and killed one of the assailants but the other man was never apprehended. Brown's aunt and uncle had also been murdered during a residential burglary. There too, the killers were never found. Finally, Brown was talking to a man in a bar when the man was murdered. Brown heard that the killer was found and sentenced to life imprisonment. The parties went in chambers to discuss the letter. Both sides asked Brown several questions about how these incidents would affect his ability to remain impartial. Despite these incidents, Brown consistently affirmed his ability to remain impartial, to obey the court's instructions, and to vote for a verdict based on the evidence presented in court. Stone, counsel for Cliff Morgan, and Demby, Hardy's defense counsel, moved to reopen the Witherspoon voir dire for Brown; the court did not immediately rule on the motion, instead remarking, Well, we are outside the presence of the other jurors. After some additional questions, Richard Lasting, Reilly's trial counsel, asked Brown whether he would favor one punishment over the other in a case where someone is convicted of multiple stabbings of two people. The prosecutor objected, saying, That's Witherspoon again. I think we already covered that. The judge replied, All right. He [Brown] has indicated he is going to be fair in the penalty phase. In response to additional questions, Brown reiterated that he did not favor one penalty over another, and that he could base his decision on the evidence presented and instructions given. He was later subjected to a searching inquiry in open court, including questions about the five killings that touched his life. None of the three defense lawyers challenged Brown for cause or with a peremptory challenge. As this record makes clear, the trial court did not violate defendants' constitutional rights by refusing to reopen the Witherspoon voir dire. Contrary to defendants' arguments, the trial judge neither reserved the voir dire for himself nor failed to permit follow-up questions to ambiguous queries. (See People v. Bittaker (1989) 48 Cal.3d 1046, 1083-1084 [259 Cal. Rptr. 630, 774 P.2d 659].) Brown was subjected to an extensive voir dire by the trial judge, the prosecutor, and defense counsel. Further, although defendants complain that they would not have passed the jury had they had more peremptory challenges at their disposal, we have rejected the basis of that contention, ante, at pages 128-129.