Opinion ID: 1890541
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Brown's Jury Was Properly Selected.

Text: Brown contends that the trial court made several errors during the course of jury selection. He maintains that two venirepersons, A and B, should have been struck as biased in favor of the Commonwealth but were not. He maintains that two venirepersons, C and D, were improperly struck for cause on the ground that they were biased against the death penalty. He maintains that the trial court abused is discretion under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986) when it upheld the Commonwealth's peremptory strike of an African American venireperson. And, finally, Brown maintains that the trial court abused its discretion when it dismissed from the venire an African-American panel member who arrived at the courthouse on the morning of general voir dire with alcohol on his breath and in his system. Jury selection in criminal cases in Kentucky is governed by RCr 9.30 through RCr 9.40 and Part Two of the Administrative Procedures of the Court of Justice. Under these provisions the trial court is vested with broad discretion to oversee the entire process, from summoning the venire to choosing the petit jury which actually hears and decides the case. Fields v. Commonwealth, 274 S.W.3d 375 (Ky.2008); Soto v. Commonwealth, 139 S.W.3d 827 (Ky.2004). Our review of the rulings Brown challenges is thus limited to determining whether the trial court abused that discretion, that is, whether the ruling can be characterized as arbitrary, unreasonable, or contrary to sound legal principles. Commonwealth v. English, 993 S.W.2d 941 (Ky.1999). Because none of the challenged rulings amounted to an abuse of the trial court's discretion, Brown is not entitled to relief on these grounds.
Under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Section 11 of the Kentucky Constitution, a criminal defendant is entitled to an impartial jury. To help protect that right, RCr 9.36 mandates that [w]hen there is reasonable ground to believe that a prospective juror cannot render a fair and impartial verdict on the evidence, that juror shall be excused as not qualified. In making this determination, the trial court is to consider the prospective juror's voir dire responses as well as his or her demeanor during the course of voir dire, and is to keep in mind that generally it is the totally of those circumstances and not the response to any single question that reveals impartiality or the lack of it. Impartiality, we reiterated recently in Shane v. Commonwealth, 243 S.W.3d 336, 338 (Ky.2007), is not a technical question but a state of mind. Indeed, notwithstanding a prospective juror's responses during voir dire, whatever his or her protestations of lack of bias, the juror's close relationship, be it familial, financial or situational, with any of the parties, counsel, victims or witnesses, is sufficient to require the court to sustain a challenge for cause and excuse the juror. Marsch v. Commonwealth, 743 S.W.2d 830, 833 (Ky.1988) (citing Ward v. Commonwealth, 695 S.W.2d 404 (Ky.1985); internal quotation marks omitted); Montgomery v. Commonwealth, 819 S.W.2d 713 (Ky.1991). This is so because however sincere and well-meaning such prospective jurors may be, such close personal relationships are apt subconsciously [to] affect their decision in the case. Marsch, 743 S.W.2d at 834. See also, Ratliff v. Commonwealth, 194 S.W.3d 258 (Ky.2006) (collecting cases in which we have held that bias should have been presumed). It is this presumptive bias, Brown contends, that required prospective jurors A and B to be excused. During individual voir dire, juror A acknowledged that she worked as a Bowling Green police officer and that her work brought her into contact with the. Warren County Commonwealth Attorney's office and the state police. She acknowledged further that she had worked previously as a federal law enforcement agent and had taught other agents investigation techniques as well as how to give testimony in court. Finally, she acknowledged that her father and her brother had both worked extensively in law enforcement, including service as Kentucky State Police troopers. In response to questioning by the court and both parties concerning her ability to assess the credibility of police officers as she would any other witness, she stated that she was well aware that police officers could testify falsely or mistakenly and that her training had impressed upon her the importance of treating an officer's testimony no differently than anyone else's. Arguing that juror A's personal and family connection with law enforcement rendered her implicitly biased in favor of the Commonwealth, Brown moved to have her struck for cause. The trial court denied the motion in light of the juror's evident awareness of the realities of police testimony and her manifest respect for fair proceedings. Brown then used a peremptory challenge to remove juror A. Brown contends that notwithstanding prospective juror A's protestations of impartiality, her manifold connections with law enforcement were apt subconsciously to make her favor the Commonwealth and its police officer witnesses. We disagree. We have many times held that the mere fact that a person is a current or former police officer is insufficient to warrant removal for cause.... Additional evidence of bias must be shown. Mills v. Commonwealth, 95 S.W.3d 838, 842 (Ky. 2003) (citing Young v. Commonwealth, 50 S.W.3d 148 (Ky.2001)). Similarly, we have held that a close relationship to a police officer does not, standing alone, give rise to a presumptive bias. Penman v. Commonwealth, 194 S.W.3d 237 (Ky.2006) (wife of former officer). We have required, rather, such additional evidence of bias as the prospective juror's personal acquaintance with the officers involved in the investigation of the case being tried, or his assertion during voir dire that police officers are less apt than other witnesses to lie because they take their oaths more seriously. Shane, supra . Here there is no such additional evidence of bias. Prospective juror A had no personal acquaintanceship or relation with the Adair County Commonwealth Attorney who tried this case, or with any of the police officers who investigated it or were to testify in it. Nor did prospective juror A betray any tendency to lend heightened credence to police testimony. On the contrary, she frankly acknowledged that police officers could lie or be mistaken and expressed a very clear awareness of the jury's responsibility to consider all the testimony impartially. The trial court did not abuse its discretion by ruling that prospective juror A was not disqualified merely by the facts that she worked as a police officer and was related to other officers. At the close of prospective juror B's individual voir dire examination, she advised the court that about a year previously she had been the victim of a burglary. Her house had been broken into when no one was home, and various household items had been stolen. Although she had been only marginally involved in the subsequent investigation, she was aware that two individuals had been charged with the offense, that one of them had already been sentenced, and that the other was awaiting sentencing. In response to questions about the effect of this incident on her ability not to pre-judge Brown, who was alleged to have committed a burglary, she stated that her own experience would not color her judgment and that she understood that Brown's case was to be decided solely on the basis of the evidence presented during trial. Brown moved to have prospective juror B struck on the ground that as a victim of a crime similar to one of the alleged crimes, she was apt to harbor a subconscious bias against him. Again, relying on prospective juror B's demeanor, her candor in volunteering the information about her personal experience, and her answers to the questions put to her, the trial court denied the motion. As with juror A, Brown used a peremptory challenge to remove juror B. The trial court's decision was not an abuse of discretion. As with police officers, the mere fact that a prospective juror has been the victim of a crime similar to the crime being tried does not by itself imply a disqualifying bias. Additional evidence of bias is required. Woodall v. Commonwealth, 63 S.W.3d 104 (Ky.2001); Hodge v. Commonwealth, 17 S.W.3d 824 (Ky.2000); Sanders v. Commonwealth, 801 S.W.2d 665 (Ky. 1990). Obvious factors bearing on the likelihood of bias are the similarity between the crimes, the length of time since the prospective juror's experience, and the degree of trauma the prospective juror suffered. It is the totality of all the circumstances, however, and the prospective juror's responses that must inform the trial court's ruling. Here, a year had passed since prospective juror B's relatively non-traumatic experience, circumstances lending credence to her unhesitating assertion that she could base her decision in Brown's case on the evidence presented. Given those facts and the absence of any countervailing evidence, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by refusing to strike prospective juror B. Finally, even if the trial court had abused its discretion with respect to these two jurors, it is doubtful that Brown would be entitled to relief. The trial court gave Brown extra peremptory challenges (a total of fourteen) but allowed the Commonwealth only the nine peremptory challenges required by RCr 9.40. Whether a defendant's receipt of extra challenges not accorded to the Commonwealth avoids the deprivation of a substantial right discussed in Shane, supra , is a question best left for another case where it is potentially dispositive. [4]
Brown next contends that the trial court improperly struck two venirepersons, prospective jurors C and D, on the ground that because of their reservations concerning the death penalty they could not give due consideration to the full range of potential sentences to which Brown was subject. As the parties correctly note, the United States Supreme Court recently reviewed its precedents in this area and found them to establish at least the following four principles: First, a criminal defendant has the right to an impartial jury drawn from a venire that has not been tilted in favor of capital punishment by selective prosecutorial challenges for cause.... Second, the State has a strong interest in having jurors who are able to apply capital punishment within the framework state law prescribes.... Third, to balance these interests, a juror who is substantially impaired in his or her ability to impose the death penalty under the state-law framework can be excused for cause, but if the juror is not substantially impaired, removal for cause is impermissible.... Fourth, in determining whether the removal of a potential juror would vindicate the State's interest without violating the defendant's right, the trial court makes a judgment based in part on the demeanor of the juror, a judgment owed deference by reviewing courts. Uttecht v. Brown, 551 U.S. 1, 9, 127 S.Ct. 2218, 167 L.Ed.2d 1014 (2007) (citations omitted). The distinction the trial court must make under these principles is not the simple one between potential jurors who oppose and those who favor capital punishment. It is the much more difficult distinction between potential jurors whose opposition to, or whose reservations about, capital punishment would prevent or substantially impair the performance of [their] duties as ... juror[s] in accordance with [their] instructions and [their] oath. Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412, 424, 105 S.Ct. 844, 83 L.Ed.2d 841 (1985) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted), and potential jurors whose reservations about capital punishment are as serious, perhaps, but who are capable, nevertheless, of considering capital punishment in circumstances where the General Assembly has deemed it an appropriate potential sentence. Both kinds of potential jurors are apt to respond equivocally to voir dire questions about their ability to consider capital punishmentI don't know. It depends. That would be hard.and it is the trial court's difficult task to distinguish between potential jurors whose equivocation reflects merely careful thinking and a strong sense of responsibility in the face of such an important decision and those jurors whose equivocation signals an impaired ability to abide by the jury instructions and to give to capital punishment the consideration Kentucky law requires. Because this distinction will often be anything but clear and will hinge to a large extent on the trial court's estimate of the potential juror's demeanor, the decision is one particularly within the trial court's discretion and is subject to reversal on appeal only for an abuse thereof. Uttecht, supra . Potential juror C conceded during voir dire that she would have trouble considering the death penalty. In response to questions by defense counsel, she stated that she was not categorically opposed to capital punishment and could imagine circumstances in which she would favor it, but she made clear, nevertheless, that those circumstances would be extreme and that even having heard all the evidence she would find the death penalty hard to consider. Brown maintains that the trial court abused its discretion when it struck potential juror C for cause, because she stated that she would not rule out capital punishment per se. As noted, however, the standard is not whether the potential juror would never consider capital punishment, but whether her reservations about it are such as to substantially impair her ability to consider it. Juror C candidly acknowledged that in all but the most extreme cases she would find the death penalty hard to consider. The trial court could reasonably find such a limited ability to consider capital punishment substantial impairment, and thus it did not abuse its discretion by striking potential juror C for cause. Potential juror D presents a somewhat more difficult case. When the court initially asked whether he could consider the death penalty, potential juror D responded that he did not know, that capital punishment would be a hard decision, and that he could not know how he would decide until presented with all the facts. He repeated, I don't know, several times when asked if he could consider the death penalty. He also made clear, however, that he was not opposed to the death penalty, per se, and three times stated that the evidence might be such that there would be no problem with imposing it. Given these equivocal responses, the Commonwealth attempted to pin potential juror D down by asking him whether he could sign the death verdict were the jury to decide on capital punishment and were he to be elected the jury's foreperson. Juror D replied that signing the verdict would be tough, that he would not volunteer for that role, and that he hoped he would not be put in that position. He did not say, however, that he would refuse to sign the verdict or that that was something he would not be able to do. In striking juror D for cause, the trial court referred to his reluctance to sign the verdict, but focused primarily on his repeated uncertainty as to whether he could consider the death penalty. In the court's view, that uncertainty disqualified potential juror D. Brown contends that the Commonwealth's question regarding whether potential juror D could sign a death verdict was improper, since it deviates from the United States Supreme Court's carefully balanced standard for assessing juror qualification in this area. The trial court abused its discretion, Brown maintains, by allowing that question and by taking potential juror D's response into consideration. The trial court also abused its discretion, Brown contends, by striking potential juror D. In Brown's view, when potential juror D said that he did not know whether he could consider the death penalty, he meant only that it was a weighty decision which he would not know how to make until he had heard the evidence, the sort of serious but open-minded response that the Supreme Court has indicated does not conflict with the State's interest in a jury capable of dutifully following its instructions and abiding by its oath. Again, we are convinced that the trial court did not abuse its discretion. We agree with Brown that there is nothing talismanic about the Commonwealth's jury foreman/death verdict question. The standard for disqualifying a potential juror is whether the juror's views substantially impair his or her ability to consider capital punishment in circumstances where the General Assembly has allowed for it. Jurors are under no duty to serve as foreperson, and a potential juror's discomfort with that role, especially when confronted with it out-of-the-blue during voir dire, sheds little light on the question of his or her ability to consider capital punishment. Here, for example, potential juror D's responses that he would find the foreperson role tough and would not volunteer for it, added little to the responses he had already given when asked directly if he could consider the death penalty. The trial court appropriately gave the foreperson/death verdict questions little weight. The trial court did not, however, abuse its discretion by allowing those questions. In addition to identifying potential jurors who, for one reason or another, are disqualified, voir dire is meant to assist the parties identify those potential jurors to be struck peremptorily. The trial court has broad discretion in allowing or limiting such questioning. Fields, 274 S.W.3d at 392-93. The Commonwealth's foreperson questions, which were not calculated to elicit a potential juror's commitment to some specific view of the evidence, were well within that discretion. Nor did the trial court abuse its discretion by striking potential juror D for cause. Although Brown's interpretation of potential juror D's uncertainty about his ability to consider the death penalty is plausible, that is, that it was merely the caution of a responsible person unsure until he had heard the evidence whether capital punishment should be imposed, the question is not whether Brown's interpretation is reasonable but rather whether the trial court's interpretation was unreasonable. It was not. Potential juror D indicated that the question of capital punishment was for him exceedingly morally fraught and that he would not know until actually confronted with the decision how his feelings would sort themselves out. Although he may have meant, as Brown contends and as some of potential juror D's statements suggest, that his hesitation did not concern capital punishment itself but only its propriety under the facts of the case, he also made statements suggesting that, when faced with the actual decision, he might find capital punishment too enormous a penalty even to consider. In response to one of the Commonwealth's questions, for example, he agreed that his ability to consider the death penalty was impaired. At another point when asked if he could consider it, he said, I don't know. I might have a problem or I might not. And, as noted above, virtually every time he was asked directly whether he could consider the death penalty, he said, I don't know. Thus, although potential juror D's responses were equivocal and ambiguous, they could lead a reasonable person to conclude that he was substantially impaired in his ability to consider the death penalty. The trial court cannot be said, therefore, to have abused its discretion in making that determination. Indeed, as the United States Supreme Court emphasized in Uttecht, supra , assessing the potential juror's demeanor plays an important role in determining the potential juror's qualification, and this is especially so where the potential juror equivocates as earnestly as did potential juror D. The trial court is in the best position to make that assessment, of course, which is another reason in close cases such as this one to defer to that court's judgment.
Brown next contends that the jury selection process was tainted and his Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection violated when the Commonwealth used one of its peremptory strikes to excuse a potential juror, juror E, on the basis of her race. Brown, who is an African-American, was accused of murdering a Caucasian woman. Following the removal of potential jurors for cause, there remained a venire of forty individuals, four of whom where African-Americans. The defense used a peremptory challenge as to one of those African-Americans; the prosecution used a peremptory challenge as to one; one of the African-Americans was removed by lot; and one served on the jury that ultimately sentenced Brown to death. In response to the prosecution's peremptory challenge, Brown, citing Batson v. Kentucky, supra , asserted that the strike was discriminatory and moved for a hearing at which the Commonwealth would be required to proffer a race-neutral reason for removing one of the African-American venirepersons. As is now familiar, Batson provides a three-step process whereby trial courts are to adjudicate claims that peremptory juror challenges were based on race: First, a defendant must make a prima facie showing that a peremptory challenge has been exercised on the basis of race[; sjecond, if that showing has been made, the prosecution must offer a race-neutral basis for striking the juror in question[; and t]hird, in light of the parties' submissions, the trial court must determine whether the defendant has shown purposeful discrimination. Snyder v. Louisiana, 552 U.S. 472, 476-77, 128 S.Ct. 1203, 170 L.Ed.2d 175 (2008) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). At the first stage, the opponent of the strike need only show that the totality of the relevant facts gives rise to an inference of discriminatory purpose. Johnson v. California, 545 U.S. 162, 168, 125 S.Ct. 2410, 162 L.Ed.2d 129 (2005) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). If that showing is made, the burden then shifts to the strike's proponent to present a race-neutral explanation for removing the juror in question. Although the prosecutor must present a comprehensible reason, the second step of this process does not demand an explanation that is persuasive, or even plausible; so long as the reason is not inherently discriminatory, it suffices. Rice v. Collins, 546 U.S. 333, 338, 126 S.Ct. 969, 163 L.Ed.2d 824 (2006) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). The proponent having articulated a non-invidious reason for the strike, the question presented at the third stage of the Batson inquiry is whether the defendant [the strike's opponent] has shown purposeful discrimination. Snyder, 552 U.S. at 484-85, 128 S.Ct. 1203. In making that determination, the trial court is to consult all of the circumstances that bear upon the issue of racial animosity, Snyder, 552 U.S. at 478, 128 S.Ct. 1203, including the proponent's demeanor in explaining the strike, the inherent plausibility of that explanation, inconsistencies in the treatment of the stricken juror and similarly situated jurors outside the suspect class, and any history the proponent may have of using peremptory challenges invidiously. Snyder, supra ; Miller-El v. Dretke, 545 U.S. 231, 125 S.Ct. 2317, 162 L.Ed.2d 196 (2005). Whether the proponent discriminated is a question of fact, and we review the trial court's ultimate finding under the clearly erroneous standard. Johnson, supra . Reviewing courts have also been enjoined, however, to consult all the circumstances bearing upon racial animosity, notwithstanding the fact that a retrospective comparison of jurors based on a cold appellate record may be very misleading when alleged similarities were not raised at trial. Snyder, 552 U.S. at 483, 128 S.Ct. 1203. Here, Brown purported to meet his prima facie burden by noting merely the racial circumstances of the alleged crime and the fact that the prosecutor had struck one of the four remaining African-American venirepersons. His argument, in essence, was that any strike of an African-American venireperson gives rise to an inference of discrimination if the defendant is African-American. In response, the Commonwealth noted that the defense, too, had struck one of the African-American panel members, and asserted that his peremptory challenge of only one of the four did not constitute prima facie evidence of discrimination. In addition, he explained that potential juror E had expressed serious misgivings about the death penalty, stating that she did not want that type of responsibility and probably could not sign a death verdict. The Commonwealth reminded the court that it had moved to have potential juror E struck for cause, and that in denying the motionjuror E stated that despite her misgivings she could consider the death penalty for a sufficiently serious crimethe trial court had referred the Commonwealth to its peremptory challenges. Brown adduced no other circumstances tending to suggest that the Commonwealth's explanation was pretextual or that its strike of juror E was discriminatory, and the court not only found in the Commonwealth's favor on the discrimination question, but ruled that Brown had failed even to meet his prima facie burden. On appeal, Brown invites us, as he did not invite the trial court, to compare the strike of potential juror E with the Commonwealth's treatment of several white panel members who also expressed reservations about the death penalty, but whom the Commonwealth did not strike. Two of these other potential jurors in particular elicited unsuccessful motions for for-cause strikes, but were not then struck peremptorily, as was juror E. Although these additional facts could reasonably be thought to give rise to an inference of discrimination, and thus would likely have satisfied Brown's prima facie burden, in the circumstances of this case we are not convinced that they compel a finding of discrimination. In the first place, Brown's failure to adduce these comparisons at trial denied the Commonwealth an opportunity to provide racially neutral explanations for them. There are, after all, non-racial differences between juror E and the jurors the Commonwealth did not strike that may, from the Commonwealth's point of view, have been telling. Both of the other panel members who elicited for-cause motions, for example, answered the Commonwealth's voir dire question about signing the death verdict by saying that although they would find it difficult they could do that. Potential juror E, on the other hand, stated that she doubted that she could sign a death verdict. Her response could have made juror E stand out in the Commonwealth's mind as someone particularly likely to thwart its efforts to secure a death sentence. Moreover, although in Snyder and Miller-El the Supreme Court noted that a prosecutor's inconsistent treatment of similarly situated venirepersons can be an important factor in identifying a discriminatory peremptory strike, in those cases the disparate treatment was clear and was only one factor among others tending to suggest discrimination. The prosecutors in those cases struck all or nearly all of the African-American panel members, and in both cases their explanations for at least some of the strikes were highly implausible. Here, on the other hand, it is not clear from the undeveloped record that juror E was treated disparately, the Commonwealth did not seek to remove a high proportion of the African-American panel members, and its explanation for the strike of juror Eher serious reservations about the death penaltywas entirely plausible. In these circumstances we cannot say that the trial court clearly erred by finding the peremptory challenge of potential juror E non-discriminatory, and this is so even in light of the comparisons with other panel members that Brown did not give the trial court an opportunity to consider.
Finally with respect to the selection of the jury, Brown contends that the trial court abused its discretion when it dismissed potential juror F from the venire. On the morning that group voir dire was to begin, after several days of individual voir dire, a bailiff reported to the court that potential juror F reeked of alcohol. The court informed the parties, and in their presence questioned potential juror F. The juror denied having consumed any alcohol that morning, but admitted having drunk some beer the previous night. He was given a breath test, which registered 0.037, a breath-alcohol concentration not strongly indicative of alcohol intoxication. Cf. KRS 189A.010 (for the purposes of the DUI laws, a person with a breath-alcohol concentration less than 0.05 is presumed not to be under the influence of alcohol.). A bailiff testified, however, that while he was leading juror F from the court house to the jail to administer the breath test, he observed juror F having difficulty following directions. He also observed juror F's eyes at close range and saw that they were dilated. In the bailiffs' opinion, juror F was under the influence of something, if not alcohol then something else. Because juror F's breath test did not establish that he had consumed alcohol that morning, the court did not hold him in contempt. It did, however, dismiss juror F from the venire, explaining that in its view a potential juror's appearance in court with a strong odor of alcohol on his breath manifested so pronounced a lack of respect for the court and its processes and such a high degree of unreliability as to render the juror unqualified for service. Brown objected to the dismissal. Although counsel noted that potential juror F was an African-American, he disavowed in the next breath any suggestion that the dismissal was racially motivated. He objected to the dismissal, however, because juror F's breath test did not establish that juror F was under the influence of alcohol or that he had broken any law. On appeal, Brown attempts to characterize juror F's dismissal as troubling because of juror F's race, but as noted trial counsel expressly waived any claim that the dismissal had to do with race. Nor did the trial court abuse its discretion by dismissing potential juror F. Part II of the Administrative Procedures of the Court of Justice concerns jury selection and management. Section 17 of that Part authorizes the trial court to hold in contempt any potential juror who fails to give attention at court, or ... who otherwise fails to complete jury service. This section confers upon the trial court discretion to manage the jury selection process and to punish by holding in contempt jurors who interfere with that process through lack of attention or otherwise. This discretion includes the authority to impose the lesser sanction of dismissal for serious breaches of the court's decorum where, as here, the breach raises significant concerns that the potential juror cannot be relied upon to serve attentively and non-disruptively. Juror F's appearance in court smelling strongly of alcohol, his dilated eyes, and his apparent disorientation while being led to the jail raised such concerns and justified the trial court's decision to dismiss him from the venire. There was no abuse of discretion.