Court Opinion

ID: 9745533
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 23:08:14.141979+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:02.361640
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE SIMON, dissenting: I join in the dissenting portion of Chief Justice Clark’s separate opinion. For the reasons explained below, I would also reverse defendant’s convictions and remand this cause for a new trial. In addition, for the reasons set forth in my separate opinions in People v. Lewis (1981), 88 Ill. 2d 129, 179 (Simon, J., dissenting), in People v. Silagy (1984), 101 Ill. 2d 147, 184 (Simon, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part), and in People v. Albanese (1984), 104 Ill. 2d 504, 549 (Simon, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part), I believe that the Illinois death penalty statute is unconstitutional and that the death sentence in this case should be vacated. Defendant was convicted by a jury which had been “death-qualified,” that is, which was screened to exclude prospective jurors who stated that they could not vote for a death sentence. No jurors were actually excluded for cause on this ground in defendant’s case, but he maintains that the prejudice to him did not depend on the fact of exclusion but on the questioning process itself. According to defendant, the process of questioning jurors on their views on the death penalty alters their attitudes as to an accused’s guilt and distorts their consideration of the facts at the guilt phase of his trial, thus predisposing the jury to convict him. This argument was rejected in passing in People v. Albanese (1984), 104 Ill. 2d 504, 523, and the majority here does not further address it; instead it holds broadly that death-qualifying does not in any way produce a jury which is conviction prone or otherwise violative of constitutional guarantees. In my view, the process of death-qualifying a jury predisposes jurors to convict the defendant and thus denies him an impartial jury even when no jurors are actually excluded. For this reason, I would reverse and remand for a new trial. In addition, I disagree with the majority’s broad conclusion and believe that excluding for cause prospective jurors who hold scruples against the death penalty from the guilt phase of trial violates the defendant’s sixth amendment right to a jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community. I note that, on this latter point, the position set forth in this dissent differs from that expressed in the opinion I wrote in People v. Holman (1984), 103 Ill. 2d 133, 152-53. That case was decided prior to the Eighth Circuit’s decision in Grigsby v. Mabry (8th Cir. 1985) (en banc), 758 F.2d 226. After reading that well-reasoned opinion, I have changed my views on the propriety of death-qualifying a jury prior to the guilt phase of trial, particularly where, as in this case, the only function of the jury is to decide on the defendant’s guilt, and the death sentence is imposed by the judge rather than the jury. THE PROCESS OF QUESTIONING PROSPECTIVE JURORS AS TO THEIR DEATH PENALTY SCRUPLES PRODUCES A JURY PREDISPOSED TO CONVICT IRRESPECTIVE OF WHETHER ANY JUROR IS ACTUALLY EXCLUDED. It is fundamental in our system that persons accused of serious crimes are entitled to trial by an impartial jury. (See, e.g., Ristaino v. Ross (1976), 424 U.S. 589, 47 L. Ed. 2d 258, 96 S. Ct. 1017.) There can be no dispute that a jury which is predisposed to convict the accused is not impartial. Thus, the only question raised by defendant’s contention is whether the process of questioning the prospective jurors in voir dire as to their death penalty scruples in fact results in a, jury which is predisposed to convict. At voir dire preceding defendant’s trial, prospective jurors were questioned at length by the court and counsel for the parties as to their attitudes on the death penalty and whether they could, in proper circumstances, vote to impose it. The jurors heard not only the questions asked of them, but also those asked of other prospective jurors in the same panel of four. Recent scientific data strongly suggests that this death-qualifying process itself has a biasing effect on the jurors’ determination of an accused’s guilt. (See Haney, On The Selection of Capital Juries: The Biasing Effects of The Death Qualification Process, 8 Law and Human Behavior, Nos. 1/2, at 121 (1984).) In the Haney study, one group of subjects saw a videotape of a realistic voir dire proceeding including death-qualification. The other group saw the same voir dire but with all death-qualification questions deleted. Both groups then responded to a questionnaire concerning what they had seen. The results were striking; those who had seen the death-qualification were more likely to believe the accused was guilty and more inclined to believe that the prosecutor, judge, and even the defense attorney thought that the defendant was guilty. To date two courts have adopted the findings of the Haney study. In Grigsby v. Mabry (E.D. Ark. 1983), 569 F. Supp. 1273, 1304, aff’d on other grounds (8th Cir. 1985) (en banc), 758 F.2d 226, the court exhaustively analyzed the evidence and concluded that “independently of the compositional effects of the voir dire, and in addition thereto, the process itself increases the likelihood that the jury which ultimately sits will be more likely to convict ***.” In Hovey v. Superior Court (1980), 28 Cal. 3d 1, 71, 616 P.2d 1301, 1348, 168 Cal. Rptr. 128, 175, the California Supreme Court said: “Jurors undergoing death-qualification would have reason to infer that the judge and the attorneys personally believe the accused to be guilty or expect the jury to come to that conclusion. Only such an inference could serve to explain to the jurors why so much time and energy are devoted to an extensive discussion of penalty before trial. Provided with these cues from people who are not only experts in the courtroom but are also presumably acquainted with all the evidence in the case, the relevant law, and the ‘correct’ application of the one to the other, death-qualified jurors may themselves become more inclined to believe that the accused is guilty as charged.” In Hovey the court also noted that jurors who are predisposed to convict by the death-qualifying process will tend to selectively perceive evidence, draw only those inferences which support their preconceptions, and evaluate the evidence in a manner which fulfills their expectations. (28 Cal. 3d 1, 71-72, 616 P.2d 1301, 1348, 168 Cal. Rptr. 175-76.) Although that court did not ban death-qualification altogether, it did order that the prejudice inherent in the current procedures be minimized by conducting the death-qualification of each juror out of the presence of all other actual or prospective jurors, a procedure this court noted with approval was employed in People v. Albanese (1984), 104 Ill. 2d 504, 524. The available evidence suggests that, as defendant contends, the death-qualifying process predisposed the jury to convict and altered the jurors’ ability to fairly evaluate the evidence at trial. The jurors were led to believe that the primary issue which they were to be called upon to resolve in the case was whether the death penalty was to be imposed. (Grigsby v. Mabry (E.D. Ark. 1983), 569 F. Supp. 1273, 1303.) I believe that defendant was thus denied an impartial jury, and his convictions should therefore be reversed. EXCLUSION FOR CAUSE OF PROSPECTIVE JURORS FROM THE GUILT PHASE OF TRIAL BASED UPON THEIR DEATH PENALTY SCRUPLES VIOLATES AN ACCUSED’S RIGHT TO A JURY FROM A FAIR CROSS-SECTION OF THE COMMUNITY. In Witherspoon v. Illinois (1968), 391 U.S. 510, 20 L. Ed. 2d 776, 88 S. Ct. 1770, the Supreme Court held that due process prevented the wholesale exclusion of all persons who expressed objections to the death penalty from capital sentencing juries; in reaching this conclusion, the court established narrow guidelines for excluding those who could never vote for the death penalty. But the Witherspoon court expressly refused to decide the question addressed by the majority here: whether excluding jurors from the guilt-determination phase of trial based on their death penalty scruples results in a conviction-prone jury and thus violates the defendant’s fair-cross-section right. As the majority observes, the Federal courts of appeals have split on this issue. (See, e.g., Grigsby v. Mabry (8th Cir. 1985) (en banc), 758 F.2d 226; Keeten v. Garrison (4th Cir. 1984), 742 F.2d 129; Spinkellink v. Wainwright (5th Cir. 1978), 578 F.2d 582.) However, in my view, the Eighth Circuit’s recent decision in Grigsby v. Mabry (8th Cir. 1985) (en banc), 758 F.2d 226, is not only the most persuasive analysis of the issue, but also the most consistent with Witherspoon and its progeny. In Grigsby, the court applied the three-pronged analysis of Duren v. Missouri (1979), 439 U.S. 357, 364, 58 L. Ed. 2d 579, 587, 99 S. Ct. 664, 668, to establish that excluding jurors from the guilt phase of a trial because of their opposition to the death penalty constituted a prima facie violation of the fair-cross-section requirement. As the court noted, Witherspoon itself is direct authority for the proposition that persons with scruples against the death penalty are a distinctive group in the. community, thus satisfying the first prong of Duren. Indeed, the evidence showed that between 11% and 17% of those eligible for jury service were excludable on this basis. Second, the court found that the complete lack of representation of this group on guilt-determination juries was not fair and reasonable considering the number of such persons in the community. Third, Grigsby noted that such underrepresentation was due to the systematic exclusion which results from the death-qualifying process. The heart of Grigsby, however, is its analysis of the question which the Supreme Court left open in Wither-spoon because of the “tentative and fragmentary” (Witherspoon v. Illinois (1968), 391 U.S. 510, 517, 20 L. Ed. 2d 776, 782, 88 S. Ct. 1770, 1774) nature of the evidence at that time: whether death-qualified juries are in fact conviction prone and thus unrepresentative of the community. The evidence considered by the Grigsby court was impressive in its clarity and consistency. More than a dozen carefully constructed scientific studies of juror attitudes and voting behavior, most conducted since Witherspoon, demonstrated that those who support the death penalty are far more likely than opponents (i) to vote for conviction and (ii) to hold pro-prosecution attitudes on a range of criminal justice issues. (Grigsby v. Mabry (8th Cir. 1985) (en banc), 758 F.2d 226, 232-35.) No scientific evidence to the contrary was presented. 758 F.2d 226, 236. On the basis of this evidence, the Eighth Circuit found that “a capital jury, with WEs [Witherspoon ex-cludables] stricken for cause, is in fact conviction prone and, therefore, does not constitute a cross-sectional representation in a given community.” (758 F.2d 226, 229.) Conviction by such a jury can be reversed without a showing of actual prejudice. See, e.g, Duren v. Missouri (1979), 439 U.S. 357, 58 L. Ed. 2d 579, 99 S. Ct. 664. The majority here summarily rejects Grigsby on the grounds that it cannot be squared with the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Wainwright v. Witt (1985), 469 U.S. 412, 83 L. Ed. 2d 841, 105 S. Ct. 844. In essence, the majority argues that the court, “aware” of the evidence presented in Grigsby, would not be clarifying the Witherspoon standard for excluding persons from sentencing juries if it planned on finding later that exclusion of jurors from the guilt phase of trial independently violates the defendant’s sixth amendment rights. In my opinion it is unlikely that the court would have foreclosed a Grigsby-type challenge in a case in which no such issue was raised nor evidence presented. The majority’s prediction is even less plausible given that Witherspoon recognized the issues as independent and invited the proof adduced in Grigsby. In fact, the majority’s holding here confuses “two distinct responsibilities” of the jury: the determination of innocence or guilt and the determination of the proper sentence (Witherspoon v. Illinois (1968), 391 U.S. 510, 518, 20 L. Ed. 2d 776, 782, 88 S. Ct. 1770, 1775). In Witherspoon, the court held that a death sentence could not be carried out if the jury that imposed it was chosen by excluding veniremen simply because they voiced some objection to the death penalty. The court there reserved the very different question of whether the “exclusion of jurors opposed to capital punishment results in an unrepresentative jury on the issue of guilt or substantially increases the risk of conviction.” (391 U.S. 510, 518, 20 L. Ed. 2d 776, 782, 88 S. Ct. 1770, 1775.) The court suggested: “[A] defendant convicted by such a jury in some future case might still attempt to establish that the jury was less than neutral with respect to guilt. If he were to succeed in that effort, the question would then arise whether the State’s interest in submitting the penalty issue to a jury capable of imposing capital punishment may be vindicated at the expense of the defendant’s interest in a completely fair determination of guilt or innocence — given the possibility of accommodating both interests by means of a bifurcated trial, using one jury to decide guilt and another to fix punishment. ***” Witherspoon v. Illinois (1968), 391 U.S. 510, 520 n.18, 20 L. Ed. 2d 776, 784 n.18, 88 S. Ct. 1770, 1776 n.18. Far from addressing the issue left open in Wither-spoon, the court in Wainwright v. Witt simply “clarif[ied]” the test for excluding veniremen (469 U.S. 412, 424, 83 L. Ed. 2d 841, 851, 105 S. Ct. 844, 852) from “capital sentencing juries.” (Emphasis added.) (469 U.S. 412, 424 n.5, 83 L. Ed. 2d 841, 852 n.5, 105 S. Ct. 844, 852 n.5.) Instead of, as the majority sees it, foreclosing all future attacks on any aspect of death-qualification, Wainwright merely “adhere[s] to the essential balance struck by the Witherspoon decision.” (469 U.S. 412, 424 n.5, 83 L. Ed. 2d 841, 852 n.5, 105 S. Ct. 844, 852 n.5.) Thus, we may properly consider the evidence that death-qualified juries are conviction prone. The majority correctly points out that several courts have considered and rejected a Grigsby-type challenge. However, the approach of these courts is based on a fundamental misconception of what the sixth amendment requires. The uniform mistake made by those rejecting the Grigsby analysis is the belief that what the defendant is asserting is a “right to *** a jury slanted in favor of guilty defendants” (Rowan v. Owens (7th Cir. 1984), 752 F.2d 1186, 1191; see also Spinkellink v. Wainwright (5th Cir. 1978), 578 F.2d 582, 594; Keeten v. Garrison (4th Cir. 1984), 742 F.2d 129, 134). The sixth amendment fair-cross-section issue accurately stated, however, “is not whether a jury would be biased one way or the other, but whether an impartial jury can exist when a distinct group in the community is excluded ***.” Grigsby v. Mabry (8th Cir. 1985) (en banc), 758 F.2d 226, 241-42. Nothing in the Grigsby analysis suggests that a venireman who states that, because of his death penalty scruples, he cannot fairly assess guilt or innocence may not be excluded from the guilt-determination phase as well as the sentencing phase. Such a person would not be able to perform “his duties as a juror in accordance with his instructions and his oath.” (Adams v. Texas (1980), 448 U.S. 38, 45, 65 L. Ed. 2d 581, 589, 100 S. Ct. 2521, 2526; Wainwright v. Witt (1985), 469 U.S. 412, 424 n.5, 83 L. Ed. 2d 841, 852 n.5, 105 S. Ct. 844, 852 n.5.) There is, however, no legitimate reason to exclude a juror who swears that he can carry out the law in determining guilt or innocence irrespective of his opposition to the death penalty. The process of excluding such jurors effectively silences a segment of the community which the sixth amendment mandates be permitted to participate. ANY LEGITIMATE INTEREST IN CARRYING OUT THE CAPITAL SENTENCING SCHEME CAN BE ACHIEVED WITHOUT PREJUDICING AN ACCUSED’S RIGHTS TO AN IMPARTIAL JURY AND A JURY REPRESENTATIVE OF THE COMMUNITY. The ostensible purpose of death-qualifying a jury is to vindicate the State’s interest in administering its capital sentencing scheme. That interest can, however, be served without subjecting the defendant to trial at the guilt-determination phase by a conviction-prone jury. Perhaps an appropriate solution would be to use bifurcated juries or impanel sufficient alternate jurors to allow exclusion at the sentencing stage of those unable to vote for the death penalty. This would accommodate both the State interest and the defendant’s sixth amendment rights. This case starkly illustrates the need for such an accommodation. Here, as in many cases, a jury determined that the defendant was guilty but the sentence was imposed by the circuit judge acting without a jury. No legitimate State interest- can in any event be served by death-qualifying a jury prior to trial if the jury is not called upon to consider sentencing options. The practice of death-qualifying at voir dire is especially offensive given that the State’s Attorney is not required to notify the defendant in advance of trial whether he will actually seek the death penalty if a conviction is obtained. (People v. Brownell (1980), 79 Ill. 2d 508, 525-27.) This lack of disclosure raises grave constitutional questions in its own right which I do not find it necessary to address fully here. Suffice it to say that the lurking menace of the death penalty may cause the defendant to make uninformed choices concerning his defense, such as allocating too few resources to the guilt phase and too much to establishing mitigation, or pleading guilty to avoid a death sentence when, in reality, the prosecutor has no intention of seeking the death penalty. The prejudice resulting from the prosecutor’s silence on this question is only exacerbated by the procedure which this court permits and which, ironically, allows him to death-qualify the jury even if he does not intend to ask for the death penalty. Under the present practice, we simply cannot know whether the State’s Attorney is death-qualifying for the clearly impermissible purpose of obtaining a predisposed or conviction-prone trier of guilt or innocence.