Opinion ID: 1215480
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: jury selection error

Text: Defendant contends the court erred in failing to exclude for cause four members of the venire, each of whom, he asserts, made it unmistakably clear that he or she would automatically vote for the death penalty. [6] In each instance, although defense counsel's challenge for cause was denied, defendant later used peremptory challenges to excuse all four prospective jurors. Defendant ultimately used 24 of his 26 available peremptory challenges. After the defense had accepted the jury, the prosecutor, who had 11 challenges left, also accepted the jury. The trial court announced that four alternate jurors would be chosen, and pursuant to section 1089, [7] each side received an additional four peremptory challenges to the prospective alternate jurors. Defendant used all four of his allotted peremptory challenges to alternate prospective jurors. One of the alternates was seated at the trial. (1a) Defendant asserts that the failure to exclude for cause jurors with an unmistakable bias for the death penalty is reversible Witherspoon error ( Witherspoon v. Illinois (1968) 391 U.S. 510 [20 L.Ed.2d 776, 88 S.Ct. 1770]). Witherspoon and its progeny developed the standard for determining when a prospective juror must be excused because he opposes the death penalty. As explained below, we conclude that the ruling on a challenge for cause when a prospective juror appears biased in favor of the death penalty should be examined in light of the same Witherspoon standard. Applying that standard, we find that the court here improperly denied one challenge for cause in this case. However, we find the erroneous denial of a challenge for cause to a death-biased juror is not analogous to the wrongful exclusion of a prospective juror. In the former case, the defendant is forced to use one peremptory challenge; in the Witherspoon situation, the defendant is deprived of the jury to which he was entitled. We also find that the erroneous denial of a challenge for cause, with the result that a defendant uses one of his peremptory challenges, is not the type of constitutional error which should automatically result in a per se reversal. As a result, we analyze the error to see if it results in prejudice to the defendant; finding none here, we reject defendant's Witherspoon argument.