Court Opinion

ID: 9731435
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:45:48.992589+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:18.107186
License: Public Domain

McAULIFFE, Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the result. The Court cannot mandate the asking of voir dire questions designed to aid in the exercise of peremptory challenges because it is impossible logically to frame a limitation on the questions that a judge would then be required to ask. A peremptory challenge may be used for any reason that does not involve impermissible discrimination; thus, the field of inquiry becomes virtually unlimited.
The real problem presented by this case is the method to be used in propounding voir dire questions designed to develop information that could lead to a challenge for cause. Experienced trial counsel and judges realize that a sequence of questions is sometimes the most effective method of focusing the prospective juror’s attention on the legitimate subject matter at hand, and comfortably moving that juror toward a significant end question. More and more, our jurors serve for one trial or one day, and as a result the voir dire procedure is new to many of them. Answers to complicated and compound questions do not come easily, and a confused or nervous juror, in an environment that some may find threatening, may elect to say nothing if he or she is unsure of the meaning of the question or of the response that would be accurate. Simple, sequential questions, however, ease an otherwise difficult process, and are sometimes best calculated to produce truthful and useful information.
On the other hand, there are many questions that could qualify as potential predicate questions which, when coupled ■with others, could lead to the development of information relevant to a challenge for cause, and this Court cannot mandate the asking of all such questions. Again, there is no basis upon which to say that preliminary question “A” must be asked, but preliminary question “B” may be refused. The answer, then, lies in the ability of the trial judge to determine *54when there is a legitimate desire to explore the existence of cause for disqualification, and when sequential questioning will be beneficial in the pursuit of that inquiry.
It has been my experience that trial judges are quite capable of conducting effective voir dire within acceptable time limitations, and without hamstringing themselves and counsel by allowing only compound questions. Voir dire and jury selection should not be viewed as a nuisance by trial judges. It is an important part of any trial, and the trial judge should have no hesitancy in using the occasion to assist all parties in the search for relevant information.
Likewise, trial judges should not hesitate to restructure unartful questions propounded by counsel when it appears that the information sought would be relevant and the problem with the question is easily rectified. In the instant case, for example, the trial judge might well have asked the panel, in a single question, whether they or any members of their family had ever worked for a law enforcement agency, and as a result of that fact might find it difficult or impossible to render a fair and impartial verdict in the case about to be tried. The benefit of a compound question in that instance is to focus the prospective juror’s attention on a specific circumstance that experience has shown is sometimes a disqualifying factor for a juror, without taking the time to hear from each juror about his or her uncle, aunt, or sister who was a police officer. Given the questions that were asked in this case, I agree that the failure to ask that question was not error. The point I make is that trial judges, with their superior experience in hearing responses of all kinds from prospective jurors, should not hesitate to propound reasonable questions, or even to assist with the framing of a proper question, even when it would not be error to refuse to do so.
Additionally, I do not join the Court’s opinion because of the dictum which at least implicitly suggests that peremptory challenges are somehow less than desirable. I view peremptory challenges, properly used, as a valuable part of our jury system. Recent decisions designed to prevent impermissible *55discrimination in the exercise of peremptory challenges have certainly added a layer of complexity to the process, but that is hardly reason to jettison the entire procedure. I continue to have faith in the ability of attentive trial judges, sensitive to the possibility of unconstitutional misuse of challenges, to separate the wheat from the chaff.