Court Opinion

ID: 9519828
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 01:25:34.000117+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:41:13.900899
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE KUEHN, specially concurring: I agree that it was proper for the trial judge to declare a mistrial in this case. Under the circumstance that he confronted, he had no choice in the matter. With only 11 jurors seated, the trial could not be concluded in the absence of the defendant’s consent. I also agree that the trial judge acted properly in excusing a juror named Mr. Buckner, despite the defendant’s opposition and the defendant’s desire to have him, along with the other jurors selected for this trial, decide his fate. While I join in the outcome reached by my colleagues, I disagree with how they arrive at their result. Accordingly, I specially concur. I take a different view of what happened in this case. The trial judge did not remove Buckner from the jury panel because of his comment that it would be “quite hard” to be fair and impartial in light of his girlfriend’s relationship with one of the crime victims. Nor did the trial judge remove Buckner in an effort to protect the defendant against his own mistaken perception that Buckner would remain fair to him despite his newly acquired knowledge of the crime victim’s identity. This is the majority’s view of the reason for the removal — that it was based upon an effort to protect the defendant against himself, by striking a juror the defendant wanted to keep, because the juror had demonstrated a potential bias to convict the defendant. If that were the only reason for striking Buckner, and the judge did so under the circumstances presented here — where the removal invalidated the jury and ended the trial, despite a defendant who insisted upon a trial to a verdict before the jury that he had selected, despite a defendant who maintained faith in the juror’s ability to be fair — we should reverse, rather than affirm, the trial judge’s ruling. In truth, the trial judge was not concerned about Buckner’s claim that it would be “quite hard” to remain impartial. He was concerned about a series of things that came to light, after the trial had commenced, that suggested the possibility that Buckner was a ringer for the defendant, a juror capable of poisoning the jury pool against the State. Events that occurred during the trial made it reasonable to infer that Buckner initially wanted to be selected for the jury in order to assist the defendant, that he harbored a concealed bias in the defendant’s favor, and that he got cold feet about his initial agenda after the evidence came forth. When he was questioned on voir dire, Buckner did not tell anyone that he knew the defendant’s mother. Then, after most of the evidence was presented, he remembered another problem that did not surface during voir dire. He asked for an audience with the judge to reveal that the State had a pending case against him. When his claim was checked out, it was discovered that the case had been closed long before the trial began, and he was not excused. The next day, he asked for another audience to reveal that his girlfriend was the best friend of Melissa Brown, one of the crime victims who testified. During questioning, he had to think twice about who his girlfriend was, making it appear as if he was again lying about the true state of affairs, with a hope to avoid the jury deliberation process. The trial judge removed Buckner from the jury panel because of his earlier effort to escape the jury by lying about a pending case, because of the fact that he had been prosecuted before and did not say so during voir dire, because of his belated admission that he knew the defendant’s mother, and because of his prevarication about a girlfriend who was the best friend of Melissa Brown and his fabricated claim that his newly acquired knowledge of who the victim was would make it harder on him to be fair. In assessing Buckner’s renewed effort to get off the jury, Judge Hitpas observed: “Apparently, he has had overnight to think about trying to get off again, and this was another method. He couldn’t remember his girlfriend’s name who happens to be friends with Melissa. I am not even sure any such person exists Mr. Pirtle was a juror who went home and discussed the case with certain family members who knew the attempted murder victim and, according to Pirtle, sided with him against the defendant, during their discussions. He was removed, at the defendant’s urging and over the State’s objection. Immediately upon the removal of Pirtle, Judge Hit-pas returned to the issue of juror Buckner and stated, “I think he is just trying to get off [the jury],” implying that he did not believe that Buckner had a girlfriend who knew the victim or that his sworn duty to be fair and impartial became harder to fulfill because of it. This is what the judge and counsel had to say after the removal of Pirtle and Buckner from the panel: “THE COURT: We are out of jurors. And I don’t like it, but I think *** in fairness to both sides, Pirtle is bad for you (addressing defense counsel). Buckner is bad for you (addressing the assistant State’s Attorney). I think Buckner is a[-]lying in the weeds. THE STATE: I agree. THE COURT: He is just lying in the weeds to be unfair, and my interest here is not that anybody wins. My interest is that it’s fair. MR. VELTMAN [defense counsel]: I understand. THE COURT: And I think we have got Buckner lying in the weeds to be unfair one way, and we have Mr. Pirtle[,\ who may well try but would probably have a hard time being fair the other way. I am not crazy about this, but in light of this, I will have to declare a mistrial.” (Emphasis added.) Contrary to the assumption made in the majority’s analysis, no one — not the State, not the defendant, and especially not the trial judge — thought that Buckner harbored a potential bias to convict. Just the opposite was true. That is why defense counsel worked so hard to keep him on the jury, despite his efforts to get off. And that is why I respectfully depart from the analysis that the majority opinion sets forth. If what really happened was as the majority says, and Buckner was removed to protect the defendant’s interest in fairness, I would have to question the propriety of the action. All jurors harbor the potential for some degree of bias. I do not think that judges should assume “it’s for your own good” attitudes and knowingly destroy the right to a verdict by a jury of one’s choosing because of some remote chance of bias against the defendant. This is particularly so where, as here, the claimed circumstance carried so little reason for a bias to convict and the defendant expressed such faith in the juror and such a desire to keep him. Since I believe that the reasons for the removal were other than those stated in the majority opinion, I agree with the outcome that the majority reaches. Accordingly, I specially concur.