Opinion ID: 3065125
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Pretrial Conversations

Text: [1] Gholston omitted from her voir dire responses any mention of a pretrial conversation she had with a neighbor regarding Hamilton’s suggestion that a Canadian had murdered his wife. In answering the voir dire questions, however, Gholston acknowledged her basic familiarity with the circumstances of the crime. In fact, when asked whether the material she had read caused her to form an opinion regarding the guilt or innocence of the defendant, she answered: “No, it really didn’t.” Moreover, the record confirms that “Gholston’s omissions on voir dire were inadvertent, not intentional,” and that “even if Gholston’s voir dire answers understated her pretrial awareness and impressions about the case, particularly with respect to petitioner’s claim of a Canadian killer, her omissions did not lead to the seating of a biased juror.” In re Hamilton, 975 P.2d at 616.