Opinion ID: 1671765
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: whether the court was unduly restrictive on appellant's voir dire examination.

Text: ¶ 224. Voir dire plays a critical function in assuring the criminal defendant that his Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury will be honored. Without an adequate voir dire the trial judge's responsibility to remove prospective jurors who will not be able impartially to follow the court's instructions and evaluate the evidence cannot be fulfilled. Rosales-Lopez v. United States, 451 U.S. 182, 188, 101 S.Ct. 1629, 1634, 68 L.Ed.2d 22 (1981) (citations omitted). ¶ 225. Appellant cites Rosales-Lopez, where the U.S. Supreme Court held that a federal trial court must allow the defendant to examine potential jurors' ability to deal impartially with racial prejudice, at least if there is a likelihood that racial issues will be involved. Rosales-Lopez, 451 U.S. at 190, 101 S.Ct. at 1635. The court further held that though trial courts have traditionally been granted broad discretion in conducting voir dire, the trial judge is obligated to impanel an impartial jury. Id. at 189, 101 S.Ct. at 1634-35. ¶ 226. In the case sub judice, the record establishes that the trial court allowed the appellant to extensively question potential jurors about racial matters, including civil rights activities. The court did caution the defense after it had asked what the court described as highly inflammatory racial questions. One question in particular dealt with the term nigger, which led the court to caution that: I'm not going to excuse these witnesses [sic] if you bring up these  these  what I call highly inflammatory racial questions to the prospective jurors. Certainly, I'm going to assume that they're going to be offended by the question, and they're going to say they're going to be offended by it, and if they're otherwise qualified, I'm not going to excuse them simply because they get excited about those questions. However, the trial court did not restrict the defendant's questioning on racial issues. The questions propounded more than met the requirements established in United States v. Johnson, 527 F.2d 1104, 1107 (4th Cir.1975), where the court held that [a] general query whether any juror is unable to judge the case fairly because of race, creed or color of the defendant should suffice. (quoting United States v. Grant, 494 F.2d 120, 122-23 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 849, 95 S.Ct. 87, 42 L.Ed.2d 79 (1974)). The trial court merely cautioned the defense to avoid using highly inflammatory language. This cautionary admonition did not rise to the level of curbing or limiting the defendant's inquiry into racial prejudice. This assignment of error is without merit.