Opinion ID: 1226896
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Excusal From Jury Service for Hardship

Text: Defendant contends that the trial court erred by improperly excusing 229 persons from jury service in this action on the ground of undue personal hardship. (He lists a total of 325 prospective jurors and 235 hardship excusals.) The major argument is that the court used the challenged excusals to remove all persons who simply did not wish to serve in a capital case  or allowed such persons to remove themselves  and thereby created a pool of volunteers. A minor argument is that the court generally ordered the challenged excusals without adequate support in the law or the facts or both. The claim asserts violation of California statutory and decisional law and also the United States and California Constitutions. At defendant's request, the trial court employed the following procedure to select the jury that would try his case: examination of prospective jurors in panels, resulting in excusals for hardship; individual sequestered examination of those who remained, leading to exclusion for cause; the random drawing into the jury box of those who still remained, ending with removal on peremptory challenge by the People or defendant; and finally, the swearing of 12 jurors and 4 alternates. Voir dire was conducted over 18 days. Initially, 325 prospective jurors were examined in 4 panels. By way of introduction, the trial court stated that the expected length of the proceedings was about 10 to 12 weeks. It went on to solicit, and determine, claims of undue personal hardship. At this stage it received 232 requests for excusal; it granted 218 and denied 14. Only then did it reveal that the action was criminal in nature and might involve the death penalty. At this stage it received, and granted, four additional requests. The 103 remaining prospective jurors were then examined individually and in sequestration. In the course of these proceedings, the People took 11 challenges for cause, all successfully. For his part, defendant took eight challenges for cause, three successfully. The trial court removed an additional four persons for cause, two clearly on its own motion and two apparently so. It also excused 12 more persons for hardship. Six persons did not appear. From the 67 still remaining, prospective jurors were randomly drawn into the jury box. The People and defendant were each allotted 26 peremptory challenges against prospective jurors and 4 against prospective alternate jurors. The People used 13 such challenges against prospective jurors and 2 against prospective alternate jurors. Defendant used nine against the former and four against the latter. The jurors and alternates were sworn. Before the guilt phase opened, the trial court excused one of the jurors for hardship and substituted an alternate in his place. In total, the trial court excused 235 persons for undue personal hardship. No objection whatever was made by either the People or defendant. (24) As stated, defendant claims that the trial court erred by improperly excusing 229 persons from jury service in this action because of undue personal hardship  220 at panel voir dire, 8 at individual sequestered voir dire, and 1 after swearing. After close consideration, we reject defendant's claim on procedural grounds. A defendant may properly raise in this court a point involving an allegedly improper excusal for undue personal hardship only if he made the same point below. The requirement of a contemporaneous and specific objection promotes the fair and correct resolution of a claim of error both at trial and on appeal, and thereby furthers the interests of reliability and finality. When a contemporaneous and specific objection is made, the parties are put on notice to characterize the claim as they think proper and to set out the law and facts as they deem necessary. With their response, the trial court is provided with a basis on which to define the claim and then determine whether it is meritorious and, if so, how any harm may be avoided or cured as promptly and completely as possible. On such a record, the appellate court may then decide whether a challenge to the trial court's ruling is sound. (Cf. People v. Gallego (1990) 52 Cal.3d 115, 166 [276 Cal. Rptr. 679, 802 P.2d 169] [applying the requirement of a contemporaneous and specific objection to a claim that the prosecutor used peremptory challenges to remove prospective jurors on the sole ground of group bias in violation of Cal. Const., art. I, § 16, as construed in People v. Wheeler (1978) 22 Cal.3d 258 (148 Cal. Rptr. 890, 583 P.2d 748)].) Plainly, defendant does not satisfy the rule requiring a contemporaneous and specific objection: as noted, he made no objection whatever to any of the trial court's hardship excusals. Nor does he show that any exception to the requirement is available. He argues that the rule does not apply to claims of error under the United States or California Constitution. We are not persuaded. The reasons for the requirement extend to all claims of whatever dimension. Its operation should therefore extend to all as well. [7] Were we to proceed beyond the threshold, we would be inclined to reject defendant's claim on the merits. Of course, a trial court has authority to excuse a person from jury service for undue personal hardship. (Code Civ. Proc., § 204, subd. (b); see Code Civ. Proc., former § 200, added by Stats. 1975, ch. 593, § 3, p. 1310, and repealed by Stats. 1988, ch. 1245, § 1, p. 4140.) Exercise of that authority is reviewed for abuse of discretion. (See People v. Wheeler, supra, 22 Cal.3d at p. 273.) Applying that standard, we believe that no pervasive error appears under California statutory or decisional law. Almost all of the 229 challenged excusals for undue personal hardship seem reasonable. To be sure, the trial court's examination was usually quite brief in length and often jocular in tone. Its result, however, was virtually always the sound determination of the question presented. (Compare People v. Thompson (1990) 50 Cal.3d 134, 157-159 [266 Cal. Rptr. 309, 785 P.2d 857] [arriving at a similar conclusion on a similar record].) Read fairly and as a whole, the record does not bear out defendant's argument that the trial court used the challenged hardship excusals to remove all persons who simply did not wish to serve in a capital case  or allowed such persons to remove themselves. As the facts set out above show, the court denied 14 requests for excusal on this ground. Moreover, it ordered almost all the challenged excusals  224 out of 229  before it revealed that the action was criminal in nature and might involve the death penalty. Neither does the record support defendant's argument that the trial court generally ordered the challenged hardship excusals without adequate basis. The court used its practical experience and made pragmatic evaluations. As a general matter, defendant's criticism in this regard is little more than a cavil. Of the 229 challenged hardship excusals, however, 4 are indeed troubling. In each of these instances, it appears that the trial court  although not without chastisement  did in fact allow a prospective juror to remove himself because he simply did not wish to serve. But it cannot be said that any of these persons was motivated by a desire to avoid participation in a capital (or even a criminal) case. Of the four prospective jurors here considered, three were excused at panel voir dire before they had even been informed of the nature of the proceedings. The fourth, it is true, was excused at individual sequestered voir dire after he received that information. But the record reveals that he acted solely out of economic considerations. (25) Further, we believe that no error appears under the United States or California Constitution. In this regard, defendant claims that the challenged excusals for undue personal hardship violated, inter alia, his rights to (1) a jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community, under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and article I, section 16, of the California Constitution; (2) an impartial panel, under the same provisions; (3) a reliable determination by such a panel on the issue of life or death, under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments and article I, section 17; and (4) equal protection of the laws, under the Fourteenth Amendment and article I, section 7. The point rests on an assumption that all persons who did not wish to serve in a capital case were removed. The assumption is unsupported. Certainly, we cannot conclude that the pool remaining after the challenged excusals constituted volunteers. As noted, 14 requests for excusal were denied. A fortiori, we cannot conclude that the pool constituted volunteers for a capital (or even a criminal) case. As also noted, almost all the challenged hardship excusals were made before the nature of the proceedings was revealed. On this record, we can find no significant infringement of defendant's fair-cross-section, impartial-jury, and reliable-penalty-determination rights. The four questionable excusals were without appreciable effect. (26) In any event, even if the trial court did in fact err as defendant claims under both California statutory and decisional law and also the United States and California Constitutions, reversal would not be warranted. In our view, none of the asserted violations entails prejudice per se. And certainly, none discloses actual prejudice. On the issues of both error and reversibility, defendant finds the state of the record unsatisfactory. But having made no relevant objection below, he may not be heard to complain in that regard.