Opinion ID: 2404633
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Motion to strike the entire jury panel and dismiss the indictment

Text: On the morning of the trial, the defendant made a motion to strike the entire jury panel and to dismiss the indictment on the ground that the defendant's wife, Trudy Franzen, who had been returned to the court as a prospective member of the jury panel for the criminal sessions at which her husband was to be tried, was allegedly unlawfully excused from service contrary to the statutory provisions regulating the same. The defendant's challenge to the array, based on noncompliance with statutory requirements respecting selection for, or exemption from, service on the jury panel, was timely made before trial. See Christian v. State, 268 A.2d 620, 625 (Me.1970). So far as the facts are concerned, it is undisputed that the clerk of the court had first notified the District Attorney that Mrs. Franzen was on the jury panel from which jurors would be selected for the trial of her husband. The clerk was told to consult with the presiding justice, who directed her to advise Mrs. Franzen not to report for jury duty. This, of course, was not in compliance with the provisions of 14 M.R.S.A. §§ 1213 and 1214. [1] Indeed, except for her relationship of wife of the defendant and potential witness in the case, Trudy Franzen was not disqualified for jury service under 14 M.R.S.A. § 1211, nor was she expressly exempted from service thereunder. Nor, did the court purport to excuse her for undue hardship, extreme inconvenience or public necessity pursuant to 14 M.R.S.A. § 1213. When an attack is made on the whole panel, such as the defendant has mounted in the instant case, the burden of proof that the panel was in fact and in law illegally constituted and that prejudice resulted is on the party making the attack. See State v. Christian, 235 A.2d 294 (Me. 1967). The court's unilateral pretrial excuse of Trudy Franzen from jury service was a proper exercise of judicial discretion and, rather than tainting the jury panel, served to protect it from the potential infectious influence of a prospective juror, a person sensible of bias, prejudice or particular interest in the very cause of her husband, commingling with the other jurors pending the selection of the particular panel for trial of the case. Since it was made to appear through competent source that the potential juror was the wife of the defendant Franzen, and that, as a matter of law, she did not stand indifferent in the cause of the State against her husband, it was proper for the court to exempt her from jury service under the circumstances of the instant case without motion or hearing. Section 1301 of title 14 provides that [t]he court, on motion of either party in an action, may examine, on oath, any person called as a juror therein, whether he is related to either party, has given or formed an opinion or is sensible of any bias, prejudice or particular interest in the cause. If it appears from his answers or from any competent evidence that he does not stand indifferent in the cause, another juror shall be called and placed in his stead. Neither this section, nor section 1214 which provides that the procedures prescribed by that section are the exclusive means by which a person accused of a crime, the State or a party in a civil case may challenge a jury on the ground that the jury was not selected in conformity with the chapter, can be viewed to deprive the court of its own right to set aside or excuse a juror, once it has been ascertained that the particular juror was not or could not be expected to be impartial. See State v. Williams, 30 Me. 484, 485 (1849); Snow v. Weeks, 75 Me. 105, 106 (1883). When a person, such as a juror, is required to be disinterested or indifferent in a matter in which others are interested, a relationship to one of the parties by consanguinity or affinity within the 6th degree according to the civil law, or within the degree of 2nd cousins inclusive, will disqualify such person from service as a juror, but the objection to such juror, if known, must be made at or before trial. 1 M.R.S.A. § 71, as modified by 14 M.R.S.A. § 1303. See State v. Fischer, 238 A.2d 210, 215 (Me.1968); State v. Bowden, 71 Me. 89 (1880); Hardy v. Sprowle, 32 Me. 310 (1850). The court committed no legal error by excusing as juror the wife of the defendant upon its own initiative; this was an exercise of proper judicial discretion. Furthermore, since there was not the slightest hint that the jury that did hear the appellant's case was in fact sensible of bias and prejudice against him or actually did not stand indifferent in the cause, Franzen's present claim of aggrievement based on the court's excuse of his wife from jury service must fail on appeal. Christian v. State, supra, at 625. [2]