Opinion ID: 1721671
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: did the failure to strike various jurors for cause deprive shell of his right to a fair and impartial jury?

Text: Under this assignment of error, Shell asserts that the local knowledge of the facts of the case made a fair trial impossible. He maintains that too many of the jurors had extensive knowledge of the case and/or built-in biases which created doubt as to their impartiality. After examining both the voir dire of prospective jurors and the actual composition of the jury, this Court concludes there is no merit to this claim. Once again, the State is correct in noting that no objection was ever made by the defense to the composition of the jury. Cannaday v. State, 455 So.2d 713, 718-19 (Miss. 1984). It is also noteworthy that Shell had initially requested a change of venue. However, before the trial began, he withdrew the motion for a change of venue on his own accord. Shell had the constitutional right to have his trial held in Winston County where the offense was committed. Miss. Const., Art. 3, Sec. 26; State v. Caldwell, 492 So.2d 575 (Miss. 1986). Shell asserts in his brief that twenty-five (25) of the prospective jurors knew the victim or a member of her family, including her late husband. Shell also maintains that thirteen (13) prospective jurors stated they could not be impartial, for various reasons. The most crucial fact in the case is how many of these alleged biased members of the venire became jurors. From this Court's inspection of this record, no member of the jury that convicted Robert Lee Shell had prior knowledge of Mrs. Johnson or her family, and each juror stated unequivocally that they could be impartial. There is no reason to doubt the truth of these responses. As indicated above, this Court has held on more than one occasion that when a trial court fails to sustain a challenge for cause by the defense, it must be shown that the defense had exhausted all of its peremptory challenges before the trial court's refusal to allow the challenge for cause. Chisolm v. State, 529 So.2d 635, 639 (Miss. 1988); Johnson v. State, 512 So.2d 1246, 1255 (Miss. 1987). Shell failed to use his full allotment of peremptory challenges. When voir dire was completed, he still had two peremptory challenges remaining. For all of these reasons, this Court concludes there is no merit to this assignment of error.