Court Opinion

ID: 9553229
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:25:53.652975+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:30:24.963823
License: Public Domain

ZIMMERMAN, Chief Justice,
concurring:
I concur in the result reached by Justice Howe and join in all of his opinion except the portion of the discussion that considers the merits of defendant’s Batson challenge and the portion discussing death qualification of the jury. With respect to the Batson point, I would hold that defense counsel failed to preserve an adequate record of the ethnicity of the jurors struck from the panel so as to permit a meaningful Batson analysis. See State v. Cantu, 778 P.2d 517, 518 (Utah 1989).
Regarding death qualification, I first note that the death qualification discussions in the lead opinion in State v. Young relied on by Justice Howe did not garner a majority of this court’s members. 853 P.2d 327 (Utah 1993) (plurality opinion). One member of the court would have found death qualification unconstitutional. 853 P.2d at 394-95 (opinion of Durham, J.). Justice Stewart and I concurred as to the result reached by Chief Justice Hall, but we did not categorically reject all challenges to death-qualified juries. 853 P.2d at 414-16 (opinion of Zimmerman, J.); id. at 418 (opinion of Stewart, J.). Rather, we said that we would not disturb the existing practices absent clearer scientific evidence about the effects of death qualification. Id. Since no such evidence has been forthcoming, I continue to adhere to the result in Young and would reject, on the basis expressed in that ease, Alvarez’s similar challenge here.
STEWART, Associate C.J., concurs in the concurring opinion of ZIMMERMAN, C.J.