Opinion ID: 1589788
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Failure to object to jury composition

Text: ¶ 129. Goff claims that counsel's failure to object to the composition of the venire, which Goff claims had a disproportionate number of potential jurors with close ties to law enforcement, led to the violation of Goff's right to a fair trial and an impartial jury. ¶ 130. Goff is correct that this Court has reversed a conviction where an inordinate number of jurors were found to have had close ties to law enforcement. See Mhoon v. State, 464 So.2d 77 (Miss. 1985) ( superseded by statute on other grounds, see Bevill v. State, 556 So.2d 699, 713 (Miss.1990)). In Mhoon, the majority was troubled that Mhoon's counsel would have had to use all of his peremptory challenges just to exclude all the persons who were either on the police force or closely connected with the police force. Id. at 80. Moreover, this Court found that, even if Mhoon's counsel had wanted to do this, he could not have done so, as one juror had not properly identified her connection to the police on voir dire. Id. Mhoon, therefore, determined that these circumstances, inter alia, created an unfair hardship for the defendant. Id. at 81. ¶ 131. However, the unique circumstances which resulted in that finding by this Court in Mhoon, are not present in the case before us. Here, the jury pool was comprised of a fifty-eight person special venire. After challenges for cause, the trial judge struck ten potential jurors. Therefore, the remaining pool was composed of forty-eight venire-persons. Eleven of these forty-eight persons had some degree of connection to law enforcement, which ranged from direct to indirect. ¶ 132. Of the twelve jurors chosen to serve, two had connections to law enforcement: Tiffany Hudson (panel one, juror nine) and Charlotte Driskell (panel four, juror six). Hudson's mother is a correctional officer at the jail where Goff was being held, and Driskell's daughter-in-law's first cousin is a deputy. ¶ 133. As reiterated in Mhoon, [t]his Court does not hold that a person engaged in law enforcement, or related by blood or marriage to one engaged in law enforcement, should be per se excluded from jury service. Id. at 82. The number of potential jurors, as well as actual jurors, in this matter with ties to law enforcement was neither unusual nor problematic. ¶ 134. Furthermore, [c]omplaints concerning counsel's failure to .... make certain objections fall within the ambit of trial strategy and cannot give rise to an ineffective assistance claim. Cole v. State, 666 So.2d 767, 777 (Miss.1995) (citing Murray v. Maggio, 736 F.2d 279 (5th Cir.1984)). This Court also has held that jury selection decisions plainly fall within the `ambit of trial strategy.' Reynolds v. State, 784 So.2d 929, 934 (Miss.2001). As such, we find counsel's decision not to object to the composition of the venire to be a strategic decision which this Court will not second-guess. Stringer v. State, 454 So.2d at 477. ¶ 135. This claim is without merit.