Opinion ID: 2584774
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Trial court comments during voir dire

Text: During voir dire of the first and second panels of prospective jurors, the trial court made general comments about capital cases. The court explained that aggravating factors make the crime worse than it normally would be and that mitigating factors are the opposite, as they tend to ameliorate the punishment. The court gave brief examples of aggravating and mitigating factors. In its comments to the first panel, the court cautioned that [t]hese are just examples; not at all an exhaustive list. In its comments to the second panel, the court stated, And the court will give you a rather exhaustive list, if we ever get to that point. In addition, during the voir dire of a prospective juror on the second panel, the trial court commented: You have to weigh the bad things, serious things about the case, versus the mitigating factors, the things that make the crime perhaps less blameworthy or good things about the defendant's background. Defendant argues that the trial court's comments, which he mischaracterizes as jury instructions, were biased and misled the jury because they did not include a statement that mitigation includes any other circumstance that extenuates the gravity of the crime. (§ 190.3, factor (k).) The trial court, however, was not instructing the jury at the time it made the comments in question. Indeed it was conducting voir dire of prospective jurors. Its comments `were not intended to be, and were not, a substitute for full instructions at the end of trial.' ( People v. Seaton (2001) 26 Cal.4th 598, 636 [110 Cal.Rptr.2d 441, 28 P.3d 175].) `The purpose of these comments was to give prospective jurors, most of whom had little or no familiarity with courts in general and penalty phase death penalty trials in particular, a general idea of the nature of the proceeding.' ( People v. Livaditis (1992) 2 Cal.4th 759, 781 [9 Cal.Rptr.2d 72, 831 P.2d 297].) In the context of voir dire, the trial court's comments in this case were proper.