Opinion ID: 2085062
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Remedy for Penalty-Related Juror Selection Errors

Text: Defendant urges that pursuant to CPL 270.20 (2) the trial court's errors pertaining to prospective jurors Nos. 23 and 855 compel us to overturn not only the death sentence but the guilt phase verdict as well. We disagree. The errors as to both jurors related to their ability to serve impartially only during the penalty phase. Errors of that type do not infect the guilt phase and by no means warrant a reversal of the entire trial. CPL 270.20 (2) states that [a]n erroneous ruling by the court allowing a challenge for cause by the people does not constitute reversible error unless the people have exhausted their peremptory challenges at the time or exhaust them before the selection of the jury. Subdivision (2) goes on to state that the denial of a defendant's for-cause challenge is not reversible error unless the defendant has exhausted all peremptory challenges or uses a peremptory against the disputed juror and later exhausts all such challenges. In laying out these requirements, the statute contemplates remedial action by the appellate court when the trial court improperly grants or denies a challenge for cause. Indeed, the loss of a peremptory challenge constitutes harm enough to trigger the statutory remedy contemplated in CPL 270.20 (2) ( see e.g. People v Bludson, 97 NY2d 644 [2001]; People v Arnold, 96 NY2d 358 [2001]). An erroneous denial of a defendant's challenge for cause is not rendered harmless merely because the defense later excuses the juror peremptorily ( see People v Culhane, 33 NY2d 90, 97 [1973]; People v Chambers, 97 NY2d 417 [2002]). To the contrary, the defendant's loss of the peremptory challenge constitutes the harm. Where a defendant's peremptory challenges are thereafter exhausted, erroneous denial of the prior challenge for cause constitutes reversible error warranting corrective action (CPL 270.20 [2]). The precise corrective action, however, depends on the type of trial involved. Capital trials are divided into guilt and penalty phases ( see CPL 400.27). In the traditional, single-phase criminal trial, the jury decides only the defendant's guilt and not the sentence. Thus, when a trial court rules in violation of CPL 270.20 (1), a new trial is the only possible remedy. The unique, bifurcated structure of a capital trial, however, not only affords the defendant broader protections but also provides alternative remedies for improper rulings. In reviewing the evolution of our statutory law, a number of historical markers support our conclusion that a guilt phase retrial is not required if a juror's bias goes only to the sentencing phase. Bifurcated capital trials began in New York in 1963, with the amendment of sections 1045 and 1045-a of the former Penal Law ( see L 1963, ch 994, §§ 1, 2). [16] The bill was proposed because, at the time, New York State was the only American jurisdiction that had retained the mandatory death penalty for murder. Proponents concluded that by providing the jury with a life imprisonment option, the bill would achieve the worthy objective of terminating New York's solitary adherence to the mandatory death penalty for murder ( see Mem of Commn on Revision of Penal Law and Crim Code in Support of L 1963, ch 994, 1963 McKinney's Session Laws of NY, at 2019). It would eliminate the illogical and wasteful situation arising when a jury determination of guilt is negated by failure to agree upon the penalty or recommendation aspect. Through severance of the two issues and prescription of separate verdicts for each, the primary verdict of guilty stands final and recorded regardless of any further proceedings or determinations with respect to sentence  ( id. at 2020 [emphasis added]). Effective 1967, the Legislature revised the Penal Law to make murder a degreeless crime (L 1965, ch 1030, as amended by L 1967, ch 791, § 9), treating intentional killing, depraved indifference murder and felony murder as the same level of offense. Under then-existing Penal Law § 125.30, a defendant convicted of intentional or felony murder [17] was subjected to a second proceeding to determine whether the sentence should be death or life imprisonment. [18] At the time of these enactments, the former Code of Criminal Procedure had been in effect for over a century, well before the United States Supreme Court decided a number of cases that shaped our statutory development. A Historical Note following the text of section 374 of the Code (Cons Laws of NY Ann, Book 66, at 824 [Edward Thompson Co 1958]) states that [a] major consideration in enacting sections 374-378 [on challenges for cause] was to define that bias which should be the grounds for eliminating a juror, confining it to those degrees of prejudice which would `endanger the substantial rights of the prisoner' (citing Report of Commissioners on Practice and Pleadings, at 196, submitted Dec. 31, 1849). A prospective juror could be challenged for actual bias when the juror expressed a state of mind such that the juror could not try the issue impartially and without prejudice to the substantial rights of the party challenging (Code Crim Pro § 376 [2]). Additionally, as the Court said in People v Carolin (115 NY 658 [1889]), a challenge for implied bias could also be made in a capital case when a prospective juror expressed such conscientious opinions as could preclude his finding the defendant guilty; in which case he shall neither be permitted nor compelled to serve as a juror (Code Crim Pro § 377 [8]). In 1968, the United States Supreme Court decided Witherspoon v Illinois (391 US 510 [1968])a case that influenced our statutory scheme relating to juror challenges. Witherspoon held that in a capital case no state could exclude jurors merely because they expressed general objections to the death penalty. The Court stated that, [i]n its quest for a jury capable of imposing the death penalty, [Illinois] produced a jury uncommonly willing to condemn a man to die ( id. at 520-521). Soon after, the Legislature added Criminal Procedure Law § 270.20 (1) (f) (L 1970, ch 996, § 1), permitting challenges for cause on the ground that: [t]here is a possibility that the crime charged may be punishable by death and the prospective juror entertains such conscientious opinions either against or in favor of the death penalty as to preclude him from rendering an impartial verdict or from properly exercising the discretion conferred upon him by law in the setting of the penalty upon a proceeding conducted pursuant to section 125.35 of the penal law ( id. ). [19] It also modernized Code of Criminal Procedure § 376 (2), replacing it with CPL 270.20 (1) (b) (L 1970, ch 996, § 1). At the same time, the Legislature enacted new CPL 270.20 (2), setting out the circumstances in which an erroneous ruling by the trial court on a challenge for cause would amount to reversible error. In People v Culhane (33 NY2d 90 [1973]), [20] the Court focused on prospective jurors who believed defendants guilty primarily based on media accounts, observing that: Although the veniremen did not sit on the jury, because the defendants exercised peremptory challenges, this is of no consequence. It is well settled that an erroneous ruling by the court, denying a challenge for cause, constitutes reversible error when the defendant peremptorily challenges the prospective juror and his peremptory challenges are exhausted before the jury selection process is complete ( People v. Casey, 96 N. Y. 115, 123; People v. Flaherty, 162 N. Y. 532, 537, 538). This rule of long standing, derived from the common law, has recently been codified in CPL 270.20 (subd. 2). It is important to recognize that this common-law rule embodied within CPL 270.20 (2) developed independently, and did not envision challenges for cause pertaining to penalty phase jurors. Indeed, until 1963, there was no such thing as a two-stage capital trial. Rather, CPL 270.20 (2) was concerned with actual bias that could affect a jury's finding of guilt. By contrast, it is evidentand critical to our determinationthat in enacting CPL 270.20 (1) (f), the Legislature was responding only to United States Supreme Court constitutional jurisprudence relating to sentencing phase bias. This federal-state dialogue concerning the death penalty continued after the passage of CPL 270.20. In People v Fitzpatrick (32 NY2d 499, 509-513 [1973]), relying on the Supreme Court's recent pronouncement in Furman v Georgia (408 US 238 [1972]), we held Penal Law § 125.35 (5) unconstitutional as violative of the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause because it permitted the jury to impose the penalty with unfettered discretion ( see also Culhane, 33 NY2d at 95). In response, the Legislature amended CPL 270.20 (1) (f) to delete the language pertaining to the juror's exercise of discretion in setting a penalty. A subdivision (1) (f) for-cause challenge was thus limited to whether the juror's conscientious opinions for or against the death penalty would preclude the juror from rendering an impartial verdict (L 1974, ch 367, § 14). [21] In an about-face from the course it took in 1963, and in response to Furman, the Legislature added Penal Law § 60.06, requiring mandatory death sentences for defendants convicted of murder in the first degree (L 1974, ch 367, § 2). [22] That brings us to the present statute. In 1995, the Legislature amended CPL 270.20 (1) (f) (L 1995, ch 1, § 15), embracing Supreme Court standards for life/death qualification ( Harris, 98 NY2d at 482-485). The Legislature sought to ensure that capital defendants receive the same protections afforded in federal prosecutions. To that end, and to craft an additional means of challenging a capital juror for cause, the lawmakers chose language akin to Witherspoon 's requirements regarding life and death qualifications. Indeed, the Legislature has continually responded to Supreme Court rulings in framing the standards for jury selection in capital punishment cases. Based on this progression, and particularly on the passage of the original CPL 270.20 (1) (f) in 1970 in response to Witherspoon, we conclude that the remedy intended in the case of an unqualified penalty phase juror is the same as that mandated by Supreme Court jurisprudencethe reversal of the sentence, as opposed to the entire trial. This conclusion is buttressed by the explicit language of CPL 270.20 (1) (b) and (f). A subdivision (1) (b) challenge pertains to juror views related only to guilt. Inexorably, reversible error necessitates a new trial. By contrast, a subdivision (1) (f) challenge pertains only to jurors' capital sentencing views, and reversible error in that context necessitates a new sentencing proceeding. Indeed, in People v Harris (98 NY2d 452 [2002]), we interpreted CPL 270.20 (1) (f)'s preclude language to embody the federal prevent or substantially impair standard of Wainwright v Witt (469 US 412 [1985]). Considering that our interpretation of the standards governing life and death qualification is derived exclusively from federal precedent, a violation should likewise parallel the federal remedy. Moreover, there is no reason to grant a defendant a windfall by ordering a new guilt phase trial when the jury selection error pertains only to sentence. Here, the erroneous rulings pertaining to prospective jurors Nos. 23 and 855 were based on challenges that went only to their ability to deliberate fairly and impartially at the penalty phase. As to prospective juror No. 23, defense counsel specifically drew the connection between the juror's experience with domestic violence and his difficulty in considering life without parole. Additionally, the court dismissed prospective juror No. 855, erroneously concluding that she was unsuitable for the penalty phase. This error does not justify a new guilt phase trial. Moreover, because we conclude that the penalty phase should not have taken place, these errors are of no consequence. Procedurally, as Professor Preiser explains, a case is in limbo following reversal absent specification of corrective action . . . required to either finally dispose of the case ( e.g., dismissal of the indictment) or prescribe the next step or steps to be taken ( e.g., new trial) (Preiser, Practice Commentaries, McKinney's Cons Laws of NY, Book 11A, CPL 470.10, at 527). Simply put, in a reversal, a reviewing court may employ various types of corrective action. Here, vacatur of the sentence alone is not only apt, but also the norm ( see Gray v Mississippi, 481 US 648 [1987]; see also Heard, 31 Cal 4th at 966-967, 75 P3d at 66; Farina v State, 680 So 2d 392, 396 n 3 [Fla 1996]; Morgan, 504 US at 739).