Opinion ID: 511054
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: magistrate supervision for jury selection

Text: 10 The appellant, Louis Rodriguez-Suarez, challenges the district court's designation of a United States Magistrate to preside over jury selection in his case. He contends that this delegation was improper under the Magistrates Act, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 636(b), and Article III of the federal Constitution. On appeal, however, Rodriguez-Suarez does not offer any indication that he was affected in any way by the fact that a magistrate presided over the jury selection process. He points to no ruling by the magistrate with which he was displeased, nor does he suggest how the jury which was selected differed from the jury which might have been selected if the district court judge had presided over the process. In these circumstances, we need not reach the question of whether the magistrate's supervision over jury selection was error because any error which may have occurred was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 828, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967) (harmless beyond a reasonable doubt standard applicable to federal constitutional errors). 11