Opinion ID: 1944634
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Denial of the Motion to Withdraw a Juror

Text: Although the Acts of Assembly relating to the qualifications of jurors in Counties of the First, [] Seccond [] and Third [] Classes provide that persons who have been previously convicted of felonies or crimes involving moral turpitude may not serve on a jury, no such provision or prohibition appears in any Act relating to any other County. Appellant's trial took place in Clearfield County, a County of the Sixth Class. In such a County, the applicable statute requires only that the jurors be . . . sober, intelligent and judicious persons. . . [] It is clear that the presence on a jury in Clearfield County of a man who had been convicted of a misdemeanor, viz., embezzlement does not violate any statutory or decisional law of this Commonwealth, [] and cannot be successfully raised after a jury has been sworn except in those cases where a defendant has been intentionally misled or deceived by the juror or by the opposite party. Cf. Commonwealth ex rel. Fletcher v. Cavell, 395 Pa. 134, 149 A. 2d 434, certiorari denied, 361, U.S. 847; United States ex rel. Fletcher v. Cavell, 287 F. 2d 792 (3d Cir. 1961); Commonwealth v. Curry, 287 Pa. 553, 135 A. 316; Commonwealth v. Dombek, 268 Pa. 262, 110 A. 532; Traviss v. Commonwealth, 106 Pa. 597, 607; Commonwealth v. Walker, 283 Pa. 468, 129 A. 453; Romesberg v. Merrill, 99 Pa. Superior Ct. 197; Commonwealth v. Penrose, 27 Pa. Superior Ct. 101. In some counties of Pennsylvania a juror is sworn as soon as accepted. In other counties the entire jury is sworn only after twelve of them have been accepted, impanelled and sworn. In Commonwealth v. Curry, 287 Pa., supra, the Court said (page 556): The generally recognized rule is that the court may, during the selection of the jury and before it is completed and sworn, excuse or discharge one of the jurors already accepted: 35 C.J. 420. In Commonwealth ex rel. Fletcher v. Cavell, 395 Pa., supra, the Court said (pp. 137, 138, 139): The applicable common law rule of criminal procedure uniformly enforced throughout the State is the same as that declared by the Act of 1939, supra, for counties of the third class. The controlling rule was well stated in Traviss v. Commonwealth, 106 Pa. 597, 607, where the defendant was likewise appealing from a sentence imposed upon a first degree murder conviction. As there enunciated, `The time to challenge is before the juror is sworn; if not exercised then, the right is waived. That waiver may be relieved against when the party affected has been intentionally misled or deceived by the juror or the opposite party . . .' . . . In Commonwealth v. Walker, 283 Pa. 468, 472-473, 129 A. 453, before quoting the rule as stated in Traviss v. Commonwealth, supra, this court declared that, `It is the duty of parties to ascertain, by proper examination at the time the jury is impaneled, the existence of any reasons for objection to the jurors. Here there was no deception by the juror or anyone as to the fact; no effort was made to elicit such information; the failure to do so and to make objection at the proper time operates as a waiver [citing authorities from various jurisdictions].' The Walker case was also an appeal by a defendant from a sentence imposed upon a conviction for murder in the first degree. . . . Again, in Romesberg v. Merrill, 99 Pa. Superior Ct. 197, 200, the court said, `As stated above, the time to challenge is before the juror is sworn. If not exercised then, the right is waived. Traviss v. Com., supra, Com. v. Dombek, 268 Pa. 262; Com. v. Penrose, 27 Pa. Superior Ct. 101; Com. v. Walker, 283 Pa. 468 . . .' Defendant contends that the disparity in the statutory provisions among the Counties amounts to a deprivation of the Equal Protection of Laws afforded him by Amendment XIV of the Constitution of the United States. If this disparity amounted to a violation of the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution  and we are convinced that it does not  this constitutional right may be waived and was waived when the forty-year-old prior conviction was not elicited on the voir dire. Furthermore, defendant has not shown, as he must, any prejudice amounting to essential unfairness. United States ex rel. Darcy v. Handy, 351 U.S. 454, 462; Adams v. United States ex rel. McCann, 317 U.S. 269, 281; Buchalter v. New York, 319 U.S. 427, 431. It is clear that the lower Court did not err in denying defendant's motion to withdraw a juror.