Opinion ID: 1526646
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the issue of exclusion of jurors

Text: The defendant contends that the trial justice's exclusion of eight prospective jurors from service on the jury empanelled to try his case violated the principles laid down in Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88 S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968). At the outset we would do well to examine precisely what the Supreme Court of the United States held in Witherspoon. In that case a jury was empanelled to perform two responsibilities. First, it was the task of the jury to determine guilt or innocence; second, it was the function of that jury to impose a penalty which might include a sentence of death. The determination of whether to impose capital punishment would depend upon an exercise of the jurors' discretion. Under an Illinois statute, the trial justice proceeded to excuse 47 veniremen solely on the basis that they had `conscientious or religious scruples against the infliction of the death penalty' or against its infliction `in a proper case.' The Supreme Court found that 39 veniremen were excluded without any effort to find out whether their scruples would invariably compel them to vote against capital punishment. Id. at 515, 88 S.Ct. at 1773, 20 L.Ed.2d at 781. The Court limited its holding with the following important observation: The issue before us is a narrow one. It does not involve the right of the prosecution to challenge for cause those prospective jurors who state that their reservations about capital punishment would prevent them from making an impartial decision as to the defendant's guilt. Nor does it involve the State's assertion of a right to exclude from the jury in a capital case those who say that they could never vote to impose the death penalty or that they would refuse even to consider its imposition in the case before them. For the State of Illinois did not stop there, but authorized that prosecution to exclude as well all who said that they were opposed to capital punishment and all who indicated that they had conscientious scruples against inflicting it. 391 U.S. at 513-14, 88 S.Ct. at 1772-73, 20 L.Ed.2d at 780. It might well be argued that since Witherspoon specifically held that only the death penalty was unconstitutionally applied, and since the determination of guilt in that case was not disturbed, even though made by a jury from which nearly all of those who indicated objection to the death penalty had been summarily excluded, no constitutional challenge can be made concerning the finding of guilt in the present case. However, it is unnecessary for us to reach this question, since in the instant case there was no violation by the trial justice of the principles enunciated in Witherspoon. An examination of the lengthy voir dire examination of all of the jurors, including those who were excluded, reveals that the trial justice made every effort to determine from the jurors whether, in spite of their opinions regarding the death penalty, they were able to assure the court that they would follow their oaths as jurors and would determine the question of guilt or innocence on the basis of the evidence submitted in the case. The trial justice only sought to elicit assurances from these prospective jurors that they would subordinate their personal views concerning the death penalty to this paramount obligation to determine guilt or innocence based solely upon the evidence presented to them. In our opinion, insofar as the principles of Witherspoon are applicable to the selection of a jury whose sole consideration was guilt or innocence and whose members were not to be concerned with imposition of a penalty, the trial justice's conduct of the interrogation and his rulings on the question of qualification were in complete consonance with those principles. In the real context of an adversary voir dire, a trial justice cannot perform his function in a vacuum, and, therefore, his is not a theoretical exercise of the application of principles which might be derived from appellate opinions. Frequently the replies of jurors to questions posed by counsel whose objectives are diametrically opposed will require the application of fine judgmental determinations. In this connection the trial justice in this case frequently interrogated jurors in order to resolve ambiguities and clarify equivocal replies to questions of counsel which they might not have understood, and which were not always models of clarity. In every instance, his determination to exclude a juror who could not give an assurance that he or she would subordinate his or her philosophic disagreement with the death penalty to the performance of his or her duty to determine guilt or innocence in accordance with the evidence was entirely justified. Therefore, even assuming, without deciding, that the principles of Witherspoon are in any way applicable to a jury whose sole function is the determination of guilt or innocence rather than penalty, even in the light of the more recent studies and articles cited by defendant, there is utterly no indication that this jury in the case at bar was in any way lacking in impartiality or indifference so as to deprive defendant of a reasonably impartial jury in accordance with his right under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States or under the parallel provisions of the Rhode Island Constitution. [3] In light of our determination, it is unnecessary to consider the possible effect which the selective incorporation of the Sixth Amendment right to jury trial in Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145, 88 S.Ct. 1444, 20 L.Ed.2d 491 (1968), might have had in a theoretical case not presented in this record upon the scope of review of the guilt findings in Witherspoon.