Opinion ID: 1728613
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Individual Jury Voir Dire

Text: The first issue raised by the defendant is whether the trial court erred in refusing to allow individual voir dire on the prospective jurors' exposure to pretrial publicity. The defendant contends that many of the jurors had been exposed to pretrial publicity about this crime, the Oklahoma crime, and the Florida crime, and as a result, counsel for the defendant should have been allowed to engage in individual, sequestered voir dire of those prospective jurors. In particular, the defendant argues that his counsel should have been allowed to question jurors concerning the content of the pretrial publicity to which they were exposed. The ultimate goal of voir dire is to see that jurors are competent, unbiased, and impartial, and the decision of how to conduct voir dire of prospective jurors rests within the sound discretion of the trial court. State v. Harris, 839 S.W.2d 54, 65 (Tenn. 1992); State v. Simon, 635 S.W.2d 498, 508 (Tenn. 1982); see also Mu'Min v. Virginia, 500 U.S. 415, 111 S.Ct. 1899, 114 L.Ed.2d 493 (1991). Where the crime is highly publicized, the better procedure is to grant the defendants individual, sequestered, voir dire, but it is only where there is a significant possibility that a juror has been exposed to potentially prejudicial material that individual voir dire is mandated. Harris, 839 S.W.2d at 65; State v. Porterfield, 746 S.W.2d 441, 447 (Tenn. 1988); and State v. Claybrook, 736 S.W.2d 95, 100 (Tenn. 1987). In addition, questions about the content of the publicity to which jurors have been exposed might be helpful in assessing whether a juror is impartial, but such questions are not constitutionally compelled, and the trial court's failure to ask these questions is not reversible error unless it rendered the defendant's trial fundamentally unfair. Mu'Min v. Virginia, 500 U.S. at ___, 111 S.Ct. at 1905. In this case, the record demonstrates that of the 78 prospective jurors examined, around 52, or about 64 percent, had some pretrial exposure to the case, either at the time the crime was committed, or shortly before the trial began. The trial court refused individual voir dire of all jurors who had heard or read something about the case but did not remember specific details, but the court indicated that individual voir dire would be permitted for those jurors who indicated that they did remember the specific content of news reports. However, none of the jurors who actually heard the case indicated that they remembered specific details of any of the pretrial publicity. In addition, those members of the jury who were exposed to pretrial publicity stated that they could and would render an impartial verdict based solely on the evidence presented at trial. Based upon this record, we conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to allow individual voir dire of prospective jurors with respect to the content of pretrial news reports to which they had been exposed. A trial court's findings of juror impartiality may be overturned only for manifest error, Patton v. Yount, 467 U.S. 1025, 1031, 104 S.Ct. 2885, 2889, 81 L.Ed.2d 847 (1984), and we find no such error on this record. Next, the defendant contends that the trial court's failure to allow him to ask prospective jurors exactly what they knew about the case from the pretrial publicity impaired his right to use his peremptory challenges intelligently and violated his rights to due process, and his right to a fair and impartial jury under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It is well settled that the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee a defendant on trial for his life the right to an impartial jury, see Wainwright v. Witt, 469 U.S. 412, 105 S.Ct. 844, 83 L.Ed.2d 841 (1985), and the use of peremptory challenges is a means to achieve the end of an impartial jury. Ross v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 81, 88, 108 S.Ct. 2273, 2278, 101 L.Ed.2d 80 (1988). However, although the right to exercise peremptory challenges is one of the most important of the rights secured to the accused, Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 219, 85 S.Ct. 824, 835, 13 L.Ed.2d 759 (1965), the right to exercise peremptory challenges is not of constitutional dimension. Ross, 487 U.S. at 88, 108 S.Ct. at 2278. As long as the jury that sits is impartial, the denial or impairment of the right to exercise peremptory challenges does not violate the Sixth Amendment. Id. In addition, because peremptory challenges are a creature of statute and are not required by the Constitution, denial or impairment of the right to exercise peremptory challenges does not violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment as long as the defendant receives what the state law provides. Id., 487 U.S. at 89, 108 S.Ct. at 2279. In this case, the defendant was permitted to exercise all 15 of the peremptory challenges a death-eligible defendant is allowed under Tenn.R.Crim.P. 24, and the record does not support a charge of systematic impairment of his ability to exercise those challenges. In addition, there is no evidence that the jury which ultimately heard the case was unfair or partial. Accordingly, we find no reversible error as a result of the restriction of voir dire.