Opinion ID: 2281982
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Substantial Deviation

Text: We first address Appellant's argument that the trial court deviated from procedures governing the jury selection process. The selection and regulation of jurors is controlled in part by RCr 9.30 which provides: (1)(a) In a jury trial in circuit court the clerk, in open court, shall draw from the jury box sufficient names of the persons selected and summoned for jury service to compose a jury as required by law. If one or more of them is challenged, the clerk shall draw from the box as many more as are necessary to complete the jury. (b) If there is an irregularity in drawing from the jury box, the names of the jurors so drawn shall be returned to the box. (c) When it appears that the names in the jury box are about to become exhausted, the judge may obtain additional jurors by drawing from the drum, or, with the consent of the parties, by ordering the sheriff or a bailiff appointed by the court to summon any number of qualified persons. (2) The jury-selection process shall be conducted in accordance with Part Two (2) of the Administrative Procedures of the Court of Justice. However, KRS 29A.060 also reflects on the appropriate use of jurors, providing in pertinent part: (2) Any petit juror assigned to a judge of Circuit or District Court may be used by any other judge of any other branch or division of Circuit or district Court when jurors are needed. This statutory provision is echoed in Part II, Section 10(5) of Administrative Procedures of the Court of Justice (Section 10(5)), which reads: In the event that all of the cards [the jurors] are exhausted before a jury is chosen, the judge shall ascertain whether jurors who have been assigned to another courtroom are available. Jurors assigned to any district or circuit court may be used in any other division when jurors are needed. Admittedly, over the years, we have allowed RCr 9.30 and applicable statutes and our Administrative Rules of Procedure regarding jury selection to drift apart by the insertion and use of differing language. However, interpreting RCr 9.30, and other statutes regulating the selection of juries in this Commonwealth, we have held that when a court, over the objection of any party, substantially deviates from these procedures, it commits a structural error deserving appellate correction. Robertson v. Commonwealth, 597 S.W.2d 864, 865 (Ky.1980). We corrected such an error [1] in Robertson v. Commonwealth , where the trial court called jurors during voir dire in order of their assigned number, and replaced each stricken juror with the next juror in line, sequentially. [2] Id; see also Allen v. Commonwealth, 587 S.W.2d 264 (Ky.App.1979) (where the Kentucky Court of Appeals corrected an identical error to that in Robertson, supra). We found the Robertson procedure to be a substantial deviation from the then established procedures because it equipped the parties with the ability to manipulate their strikes to obtain a particular person. Id. Our predecessor Court, interpreting KRS 29.280(1), [3] also found a substantial deviation requiring reversal where the trial court turned to that statute's alternate jury selection process before completing its primary steps. Conner v. Denney, 521 S.W.2d 514 (Ky.1975). In any event, we find this case more analogous to cases where we found no deviation, rather than where we have. In Copley v. Commonwealth, we found no deviation where an existing pool of prospective jury members was merged with more members the day before trial, holding that there is no requirement that the initial pool be exhausted before adding prospective jury members to the pool. 854 S.W.2d 748, 750 (Ky.1993) (emphasis added). We have also approved of the Kentucky Court of Appeals' opinion in Asher v. Commonwealth, where it found no error in a trial court's refusal to wait for the addition of jurors deliberating on another case before commencing voir dire in a new trial. Copley, 854 S.W.2d at 750 ( citing Asher v. Commonwealth, 614 S.W.2d 249 (Ky.App. 1980)). Moreover, in our most recent decision on the issue, we found no error where a trial court added a venireman to the panel after he was inadvertently left out of the selection process, even though voir dire had already begun. Campbell v. Commonwealth, 260 S.W.3d 792 (Ky.2008). With these guiding principles in mind, we turn to the question of whether the trial court substantially deviated from the prescribed jury selection procedures when it added the ten jurors from another division of the same circuit to its panel. In answering this question in the negative, we consider the jury panel contemplated by RCr 9.30 to encompass the entire jury pool for the trial courts of a particular jurisdiction, not just the members of one panel assigned for operational and management purposes to a particular court. Thus, because the jurors added during the trial below were at all times part of one jury pool subject to the use of a unified court system in Hardin County, we find that no deviation occurred. James v. James, No. 2008-SC-000163-DG, 2010 WL 2016520,  (Ky. May 20, 2010) (holding the judicial system in this Commonwealth is one system designed to operate efficiently in the attainment of fairness and justice). See generally Baze v. Commonwealth, 276 S.W.3d 761, 767 (Ky.2008). Our holding that a trial court does not deviate from the prescribed jury selection procedures when it adds jurors from another division to its jury panel derives from a review of RCr 9.30 as a whole, as well, as the instruction RCr 9.30(1)(c) provides to a court facing a nearly exhausted panel, which reads in pertinent part: (1)(c) When it appears that the names in the jury box are about to become exhausted, the judge may obtain additional jurors by drawing from the drum, or, with the consent of the parties, by ordering the sheriff or a bailiff appointed by the court to summon any number of qualified persons. RCr 9.30(1)(c). RCr 9.30 in its instructions, is referring to the summoned and available jury pool, which from day to day in a multi-faceted court system varies depending upon the needs of the several trial courts. [4] It contemplates more than the exhaustion of one trial court's operating panel. It would be an odd rule indeed if it required one court to summon new jurors while there remain available for use other jurors in the pool who are not the at the time in service with another trial court of the county. That is clearly not the intent of the rule. The initial separation of the jury pool and subsequent assignment to a certain division of one court is for operational management purposes only, so that each division or court may draw from a panel without waiting for another to complete its selection from an at-large pool. [5] This does not mean that a court cannot utilize those other jurors when available. Indeed, we recognize that court divisions are created for operational and management purposes. Thus, we conclude that when the citizens are summoned for jury service, they are for a county's court system as one judicial system and not just for one division or court. Therefore, simply because the ten jurors were active beforehand in another division does not mean that they cannot properly be added to the panel used by a different court or division of the same jurisdiction. [6] Accordingly, we hold that a jury pool remains one pool for each trial court jurisdiction not just for one judge or court. Having concluded that the ten jurors who were added to the initial panel were at all times a part of its jurisdiction's jury pool, we hold that the trial court did not deviate from RCr 9.30 by adding them.