Opinion ID: 1057579
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: The Evidence of Prejudice

Text: As a general matter, a defendant cannot successfully challenge an indictment or jury venire due to improper jury selection procedures without demonstrating either that he or she was prejudiced or that the improper procedures were the result of purposeful discrimination or fraud. State v. Stephens, 264 S.W.3d at 731; see also State v. Reid, 91 S.W.3d at 291 (appendix). Even assuming that Mr. Hester could have demonstrated that two of the three jury commissioners were not qualified to serve, he failed to articulate or support any showing that he was prejudiced as a result of two members of the Board of Jury Commissioners not being qualified for their positions. We have already determined that Mr. Hester did not successfully demonstrate that the jury venire failed to include a fair cross-section of the community. The record also reflects that the jury commissioners excluded from the venire between fifty and one hundred other residents of McMinn County. While the jury commissioners themselves did not explain the basis for removing these persons from the jury venire, the Circuit Court Clerk explained that each of the jury commissioners received the list containing seven hundred electronically generated names and that the commissioners then removed those persons whom they know to have died, removed themselves from the county or become mentally or physically disabled for jury service. Removing from a jury venire the names of persons who have died, who no longer live in the county, or who are physically or mentally disabled so as to prevent jury service was legally permissible. Mr. Hester neither alleged nor proved that he was prejudiced by removing these persons from the jury venire. In the absence of any evidence in the record that the jury commissioners removed persons from the jury venire for improper purposes or that Mr. Hester was prejudiced by the removal of the persons, we decline to find that service of the jury commissioners, even if they were not qualified to serve, provides sufficient grounds to reverse and vacate Mr. Hester's conviction and sentence.