Opinion ID: 1501117
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 15

Heading: Individual Voir Dire and Sequestration of Venirepersons

Text: Brown contends that the trial court erred by overruling his motion to grant individual voir dire and sequestration of the jury during voir dire because of the extensive publicity about his conviction and sentence of the murder of Janet Perkins. State v. Brown, 902 S.W.2d 278 (Mo. banc 1995). The control of voir dire is within the discretion of the trial court; only abuse of discretion and likely injury will justify reversal. State v. Chambers, 891 S.W.2d 93, 102 (Mo. banc 1994). A defendant is not automatically entitled to individual voir dire in death penalty cases, and it is left to the trial judge to deal with problems of pretrial publicity. State v. Smulls, 935 S.W.2d 9, 19 (Mo. banc 1996); State v. Weaver, 912 S.W.2d 499, 522 (Mo. banc 1995). In this case, the venirepersons during voir dire were asked whether they had heard about anything in the media about the appellant. The venirepersons who had heard about Brown were individually questioned at the bench out of the hearing of the other venirepersons. The trial court's conduct was appropriate as to those prospective jurors who had been exposed to media coverage about Brown. Thus, we find no abuse of discretion or any injury from the actual voir dire. In the circumstances of this case, refusal of sequestration of venirepersons was not error. See State v. Johns, 679 S.W.2d 253, 265 (Mo. banc 1984).