Opinion ID: 1215480
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Witherspoon Standard

Text: In assessing defendant's argument, we must first determine whether the Witherspoon standard, supra, 391 U.S. 510, for assessing bias as to the death penalty is applicable to the facts of this case. In Witherspoon, the Supreme Court considered under what circumstances a prospective juror may be excluded for cause based on his or her views of the death penalty. The court held that procedural due process forbids exclusion for cause of prospective jurors who have mere conscientious objections to the imposition of the death penalty. The court further stated, however, that: nothing we say today bears upon the power of a State to execute a defendant sentenced to death by a jury from which the only veniremen who were in fact excluded for cause were those who made unmistakably clear (1) that they would automatically vote against the imposition of capital punishment without regard to any evidence that might be developed at the trial of the case before them, or (2) that their attitude toward the death penalty would prevent them from making an impartial decision as to the defendant's guilt.  ( Witherspoon v. Illinois, supra, 391 U.S. at pp. 522-523, fn. 21 [20 L.Ed.2d at p. 785], italics in original.) The proper standard for exclusion was restated in Wainwright v. Witt (1985) 469 U.S. 412 [83 L.Ed.2d 841, 105 S.Ct. 844] as follows: We therefore take this opportunity to clarify our decision in Witherspoon, ... as [to] the proper standard for determining when a prospective juror may be excluded for cause because of his or her views on capital punishment. That standard is whether the juror's views would `prevent or substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath, ... [T]his standard ... does not require that a juror's bias be proved with `unmistakable clarity.' ( Id., at p. 424 [83 L.Ed.2d at pp. 851-852].) We adopted the Witt standard in People v. Ghent (1987) 43 Cal.3d 739, 767 [239 Cal. Rptr. 82, 739 P.2d 1250], noting that California courts have generally followed the teachings of the high court in determining when a prospective juror properly may be excused for cause because of his views regarding capital punishment.... (See also People v. Guzman (1988) 45 Cal.3d 915 [248 Cal. Rptr. 467, 755 P.2d 917], applying the Witt standard in reviewing a claim of Witherspoon-Witt error.) However, although our opinions in Ghent and Guzman discussed the Witt standard where the issue was whether a juror may be properly excluded for his views on capital punishment, neither they nor any other opinion of this court has applied them to a situation where the purported error is not wrongful exclusion, but wrongful inclusion of a prospective juror in the face of a for cause challenge. Although neither Witherspoon, supra, 391 U.S. 510, nor Witt, supra, 469 U.S. 412, on its face concerns exclusion of a prospective juror for cause due to his or her view favoring the death penalty, we think Witt makes clear that a challenge on the basis of bias meeting the Witherspoon standard is no different from any other challenge for cause, where the trial court is asked to determine whether the juror lacks impartiality on an issue relevant to the case. (See Witt, supra, 469 U.S. at p. 423 [83 L.Ed.2d at p. 851].) When the adversary seeking exclusion is the People, and the basis for exclusion is an inability to conscientiously consider all of the sentencing alternatives, Witt offers particular guidance as to when the People have shown that partiality. We conclude that the same standard of partiality would also have to be shown when the defendant asks the state to exclude a prospective juror for cause, based on a view of the death penalty. (2) A defendant seeking to exclude a prospective juror for cause, based on the person's views of the death penalty, must therefore demonstrate that those views would `prevent or substantially impair the performance of his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath'.... ( Witt, supra, 469 U.S. at p. 424 [83 L.Ed.2d at pp. 851-852]; see also Ross v. Oklahoma (1988) 487 U.S. ___, ___ [101 L.Ed.2d 80, 88, 108 S.Ct. 2273] [applying Witt in such a case].)