Opinion ID: 2376167
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Court's Mid-trial Removal of a Juror

Text: After defendant's former wife took the stand for the defense, a juror told the court that she believed she had played softball with this witness in a summer league. When asked about how this fact might affect her ability to evaluate the woman's testimony, the juror equivocated. She was unable to answer one way or the other about whether her previous contacts with the woman would play a role in how she decided this case. The prosecution sought to excuse this juror because it would have exercised a peremptory challenge against her had it known at the outset of the trial about her previous contacts with defendant's former wife. After the prosecutor asked the trial justice to excuse the juror, defendant's lawyer responded whatever the court says, I don't care. And when the trial justice excused the juror, defendant's lawyer added: You are the judge, absolutely. It is okay, sure. Yes your honor. On appeal, however, defendant attempts to sing a different tune. He suggests that the juror was improperly excused via the prosecution's unlawful exercise of a mid-trial peremptory challenge. Because he raised no objection to the trial justice's actions at the trial, defendant has waived any ability to challenge the excusal of this juror on appeal. See Pineda, 712 A.2d at 861. Indeed, his lawyeraffirmatively indicated that whatever the court wished to do with the juror, he did not care about it. It is okay, sure, is what the defense lawyer told the trial justice about the juror's excusal. Although peremptory challenges are not generally available to challenge a juror after he or she has been selected as a petit juror, here, as in State v. McDowell, 685 A.2d 252, 254-55 (R.I.1996), the juror's equivocal responses to the court's inquiries about her ability to decide the case irrespective of her previous contacts with the defendant's former wife formed a sufficient basis to excuse her from the jury for cause. According to Rule 24(c) of the Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure, after a juror is sworn in and after opening statements, a juror may be dismissed only for cause. [4] Pursuant to Rule 24(a) removal for cause exists when a prospective juror is related to a party, or has any interest in the case, or has expressed or formed an opinion or is sensible of any bias or prejudice therein. The determination of the disqualification of a juror for cause is left to the discretion of the trial justice. McDowell, 685 A.2d at 255 (holding that a juror's equivocal response to the trial justice's questions regarding the juror's ability to remain impartial  after the juror had realized midway through the trial that he knew the father of a witness  was evidence of that juror's bias justifying his removal for cause under Rule 24) (citing State v. Berberian, 118 R.I. 413, 419, 374 A.2d 778, 781 (1977)). In any event, defendant has failed to show how he was prejudiced by the removal of this particular juror. See Tinney, 770 A.2d at 434. Thus, for example, he does not allege that the court replaced her with a biased or otherwise inadequate juror. The defendant was not entitled to have thecharges against him adjudicated by any one particular jury or juror, only by a jury of his peers. Because defendant failed to preserve this issue for appellate review, failed to show how the court's ruling was erroneous, and failed to demonstrate how it caused him prejudice, we reject this argument as a ground for reversing his convictions.