Opinion ID: 2360448
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Voir Dire and Pretrial Publicity

Text: Logan argues that the form of the trial court's questions as to pretrial publicity was inadequate in light of this Court's opinion in Dingle, 361 Md. 1, 759 A.2d 819, and seeks reversal. We disagree. Logan primarily argues that because the court did not inquire about the nature of what the potential juror heard, whether the juror had formed an opinion about the case as a result of that information, or what the opinion was of that juror, that the court permitted the juror to self-assess his or her impartiality in violation of Dingle. The trial court did not ask compound questions but rather asked broad, single issue questions, and if a juror responded, the juror was invited to the bench for follow-up questions. Contrary to Logan's suggestion, a trial court is not required to ask content-based questions. As the U.S. Supreme Court explained in Mu'Min v. Virginia, 500 U.S. 415, 425-36, 111 S.Ct. 1899, 1905, 114 L.Ed.2d 493 (1991): Whether a trial court decides to put questions about the content of publicity to a potential juror or not, it must make the same decision at the end of questioning: is this juror to be believed when he says he has not formed an opinion about the case? Questions about the content of publicity to which jurors have been exposed might be helpful in assessing whether a juror is impartial. To be constitutionally compelled, however, it is not enough that such questions might be helpful. Rather, the trial court's failure to ask these questions must render the defendant's trial fundamentally unfair. We agree. The trial court in this case made the required decision at the end of the individual voir dire conducted at the bench in light of all of the questioning: can this juror be believed when the juror said he or she could be fair or impartial? We find no error. JUDGMENT OF THE COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS AFFIRMED. COSTS IN THIS COURT AND THE COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS TO BE PAID BY PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY. Chief Judge BELL joins in the judgment only.