Court Opinion

ID: 9564080
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:54:07.789096+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:13.480140
License: Public Domain

Abbott, J.,
concurring: I disagree with that portion of the majority opinion that characterizes the right of a criminal defendant to be present at the time his peremptory challenges are exercised as a matter of “practicality” which allows such proceedings to be conducted in chambers and out of the presence of the potential jurors.
An accused has a constitutional right to be present at every stage of his or her trial. State v. Antwine, 4 Kan. App. 2d 389, 401, 607 P.2d 519 (1980). This right includes the right to be present during the impaneling of the jury. K.S.A. 22-3405(1). In Pointer v. United States, 151 U.S. 396, 408-09, 38 L.Ed. 208, 14 S.Ct. 410 (1894), the United States Supreme Court held:
“The right to challenge a given number of jurors without showing cause is one of the most important of the rights secured to the accused. . . . He may, if he chooses, peremptorily challenge ‘on his own dislike, without showing any cause;’ he may exercise that right without reason or for no reason, arbitrarily and *736capriciously. [Citations omitted.] Any system for the empanelling of a jury that [prevents] or embarrasses the full, unrestricted exercise by the accused of that right, must be condemned. And, therefore, he cannot be compelled to make a peremptory challenge until he has been brought face to face, in the presence of the court, with each proposed juror, and an opportunity given for such inspection and examination of him as is required for the due administration of justice.”
The Supreme Court of North Carolina stated in State v. Hayes, 291 N.C. 293, 297, 230 S.E.2d 146 (1976):
“. . . Each defendant is entitled to full opportunity to face the prospective jurors, make diligent inquiry into their fitness to serve, and to exercise his right to challenge those who are objectionable to him. . .
The majority interprets these authorities to mean that the trial judge has great discretion in conducting the criminal trial which includes the discretion to allow peremptory challenges to be exercised in chambers out of the presence of the jury panel. While I recognize the need to prevent the prospective juror from discovering the identity of the challenging party or attorney, there are other methods of maintaining secrecy that do not impinge on the defendant’s constitutional right to see the jurors as the challenges are being exercised. The actual conduct of the trial must be left largely to the sound discretion of the trial judge so long as the defendant's rights are scrupulously afforded him. State v. Perry, 277 N.C. 174, 177, 176 S.E.2d 729 (1970).
In my mind, the Supreme Court has directed that the prospective jurors be present while the peremptory challenges are being made. In Lewis v. United States, 146 U.S. 370, 376, 36 L.Ed. 1011, 13 S.Ct. 136 (1892), the Court stated:
“Thus reading the record, and holding as we do that making of challenges was an essential part of the trial, and that it was one of the substantial rights of the prisoner to be brought face to face with the jurors at the time when the challenges were made, we are brought to the conclusion that the record discloses an error . . . .” (Emphasis added.)
In Pointer, the case the majority principally relies on, it was noted:
“If it did not appear affirmatively from the record of this case that the accused was, in fact, brought face to face with all the jurors who were examined as to their qualifications, and whose names were on the list of thirty-seven furnished to him, or that he was not present during such examination, or that they were not all in his presence when he exercised his right of challenge, the judgment would be reversed for the reasons stated in Lewis v. United States. We adhere to the decision in that case, as based upon sound principle.” 151 U.S. at 406 (emphasis added).
*737Although it is my opinion definite error was committed in this case, I concur with the majority that the judgment must be affirmed. The right of a defendant to be present at every stage of the trial is not absolute. The right to be present is personal and may be waived by the defendant. See Diaz v. United States, 223 U.S. 442, 56 L.Ed. 500, 32 S.Ct. 250 (1912). As the majority points out, defendant’s attorney effectively waived his client’s right to exercise his challenges in the jury panel’s presence when he agreed to hold such challenges in chambers. The record indicates that the defendant was present at the time his attorney waived this right. In State v. Sandstrom, 225 Kan. 717, 721, 595 P.2d 324, cert. denied November 5,1979, the Supreme Court of Kansas held that an attorney may waive a client’s right to be present at trial when based on the record at trial it is shown that the defendant himself voluntarily waived the right to be present. Accordingly, defendant has lost his right to. assert what otherwise would amount to reversible error.