Opinion ID: 2199758
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The remarks of the court to prospective jurors in the presence of the accepted jurors.

Text: During the voir dire the court propounded questions to prospective jurors who avowed their opposition to capital punishment. It is contended that the import of the interrogation was prejudicial to the defendants because it may have conveyed to the jury the impression that the trial judge expected the return of a verdict which would require the imposition of a death penalty, and because it may have inculcated in the juror's mind some compulsion to return such a verdict on pain of censure by the court. The questions objected to were obviously posed in an effort to elicit necessary information to enable the court to rule properly upon challenges made or contemplated. Nowhere can it be said that the court gave the impression that the jurors were under a moral obligation not to return a recommendation which would have meant the elimination of the extreme penalty. The questioning, rather, was directed to whether religious or moral scruples would prevent the individual juror, under any circumstances, from deciding upon a verdict with the death penalty if the evidence so required. We subscribe to the oft-repeated pronouncement that everyone charged with crime has an absolute constitutional right to a fair trial in an atmosphere of judicial calm, before an impartial judge and an unprejudiced jury. However, we fail to see that the trial court's interrogation violated any of these fundamental requisites. It is well settled that no impropriety is committed in asking a prospective juror whether he would be dissuaded from bringing in a first-degree murder verdict if he knew that the penalty would be death. State v. Bunk, 4 N.J. 461 (1950). Since the crime of which the defendants were accused carried the death penalty, the trial court could properly ascertain whether prospective jurors were unable, because of their scruples, to render a verdict requiring capital punishment. The State is entitled to a jury which is not prejudiced against its established laws and statutory enactments. The questions propounded by the trial court were necessary and were designed only to elicit this information. No error was committed in reference thereto.