Court Opinion

ID: 9845382
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:20:42.405057+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:05.516870
License: Public Domain

Undercofler, Presiding Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent from Division 6 and would affirm the death sentence. In my opinion the majority misinterprets the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Witherspoon v. Illinois, supra. The majority has failed to distinguish, unlike Witherspoon, between jurors who merely have conscientious objections to the death penalty and jurors who can not be impartial because of such objections. Witherspoon was concerned only with jurors who were excluded solely because of their conscientious scruples against inflicting the death penalty. None of the jurors excluded declared it would affect their impartiality. None of them stated he would not impose the penalty in an appropriate case. As stated in footnote 7 (p. 514), "It is entirely possible, of course, that even a juror who believes that capital punishment should never be inflicted and who is irrevocably committed to its abolition could nonetheless subordinate his personal views to what he perceived to be his duty to abide by his oath as a juror and to obey the law of the State.” Thus jurors may not be excluded, "... simply because they voice general objections to the death penalty or expressed conscientious or religious scruples against its infliction.” But, as I read Witherspoon, they may be excluded for cause if they will refuse to obey the law and will refuse to abide by the oath they swear. That is the case here. The juror stated in essence that he would not impose the death penalty on circumstantial evidence even though the case warranted it. He can not be impartial in such case, can not obey the *322law, and can not abide by the oath he must swear. Therefore he was properly excluded.
Again, as stated in Witherspoon, footnote 21 (p. 522), "The most that can be demanded of a venireman... is that he be willing to consider all of the penalties provided by state law, and that he not be irrevocably committed, before the trial has begun, to vote against the penalty of death regardless of the facts and circumstances that might emerge in the course of the proceedings.” The juror here has declared that he will not consider all the penalties if the evidence is circumstantial. He has stated also that he is irrevocably committed to vote against the death penalty regardless of the facts that emerge in the proceedings if such facts are circumstantial. In my opinion he is disqualified under both tests.