Opinion ID: 1059907
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Refusal to grant Jackson's strikes for cause

Text: In reviewing a trial court's action in denying a motion to strike prospective jurors for cause, absent manifest error, we defer to the trial court's exercise of discretion. Roach, 251 Va. at 343, 468 S.E.2d at 109; Yeatts v. Commonwealth, 242 Va. at 134, 410 S.E.2d at 262. Applying this standard, we find no error in the trial court's refusal to sustain Jackson's motions to strike the following three prospective jurors for cause. Robert Lee was one of a group of five prospective jurors present when another member of the group asked whether the jury would be able to say no to the death penalty and yes to life but life without parole? The court responded: No. The jury has very limited things they're told to do. They can only do what they're told to do. They can say life or they can say death. That's all they're allowed to do. The court offered to discuss the matter further with the five members of the venire and to ask them whether her explanation had affected the venire members in any way prejudicial to Jackson. Jackson declined both offers. Hence, he waived any objection he may have had to the court's response. Prospective juror Elizabeth Huffman's first cousin was the wife of the Commonwealth's attorney for the City of Norfolk. The Commonwealth was represented throughout the trial by two assistant Commonwealth's attorneys; the Commonwealth's attorney signed none of the pleadings and did not appear at trial. Ms. Huffman testified that she generally saw her cousin's husband only twice a year at family gatherings and that her limited association with him would not affect her ability to give Jackson a fair trial. However, Jackson claims that, because she indicated that these family gatherings were at Christmas and other important holidays, she gave the insurmountable appearance of bias for a juror in a capital murder case. We do not agree. The relationship Ms. Huffman had with the Commonwealth's attorney does not disqualify her from sitting on this jury. See Roach, 251 Va. at 343, 468 S.E.2d at 109 (Commonwealth's attorney in capital murder case formerly represented prospective juror in matter and prospective juror still regarded him as his personal attorney); Wise v. Commonwealth, 230 Va. 322, 325, 337 S.E.2d 715, 717 (1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1112, 106 S.Ct. 1524, 89 L.Ed.2d 921 (1986) (Commonwealth's attorney golfing buddy and long standing friend of prospective juror). An illiterate juror was seated over Jackson's objection. Recognizing that illiteracy does not disqualify a juror under any statute in Virginia, Jackson contends that seating such a person as a juror violates his rights under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and the strong public policy against seating illiterate jurors. Jackson claims that such a policy is reflected in 28 U.S.C. § 1865, which requires a juror in the federal courts to be able to read, write, and understand the English language. Jackson argues that he had the benefit of at most, eleven jurors [and] [i]t is unknown what one juror or more, may have said to [the illiterate juror] or whether they made any mistakes, intentional or unintentional, in reading the written materials. We do not agree with Jackson. In Virginia, illiteracy does not automatically disqualify a person from serving as a juror if the trial court takes steps to assure that the illiterate juror has essentially the same opportunity to review the written material in the case as the other jurors. Here, the record indicates that virtually all the documentary evidence, the court's instructions to the jury, and the verdict forms were read to the jury, and that the illiterate juror was able to have any documents read to her by the other jurors. And we assume that the other jurors accurately read the documents to the illiterate juror.