Court Opinion

ID: 9739723
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:20:09.411044+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:13.656759
License: Public Domain

WAHL, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
We deal here not with whether direct voir dire inquiry into religious affiliation of individual jurors ought generally to be allowed. I agree with the majority that such inquiry generally, although not necessarily always, is improper.
Rather, we deal with whether the Constitution allows purposeful discrimination in *773jury selection on the basis of religious affiliation. The majority, alluding to Justice Holmes’ famous aphorism, says that if the life of the law were logic rather than experience, then it might follow from Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), and subsequent cases, that the Constitution does not allow purposeful discrimination in jury selection on the basis of religious affiliation. In my view, the dilemma between logic and experience posed by the majority is a false one in this case. In any event, the very words used by the United States Supreme Court in several of its relevant decisions support my conclusion that the Constitution does not allow purposeful discrimination in jury selection on the basis of religious affiliation.
Near the end of its opinion in Georgia v. McCollum, — U.S. -, 112 S.Ct. 2348, 120 L.Ed.2d 33 (1992), the Court said:
But there is a distinction between exercising a peremptory challenge to discriminate invidiously against jurors on account of race and exercising a peremptory challenge to remove an individual juror who harbors racial prejudice. This Court firmly has rejected the view that assumptions of partiality based on race provide a legitimate basis for disqualifying a person as an impartial juror. As this Court stated just last Term in Powers, “[w]e may not accept as a defense to racial discrimination the very stereotype the law condemns.” 499 U.S., at -, 111 S.Ct., at 1370. “In our heterogeneous society policy as well as constitutional considerations militate against the divisive assumption — as a per se rule — that justice in a court of law may turn upon the pigmentation of skin, the accident of birth, or the choice of religion.” Ristaino v. Ross, 424 U.S. 589, 596, n. 8, 96 S.Ct. 1017, 1021, n. 8, 47 L.Ed.2d 258 (1976). We therefore reaffirm today that the exercise of a peremptory challenge must not be based on either the race of the juror or the racial stereotypes held by the party.
Id. — U.S. at -, 112 S.Ct. at 2359 (emphasis added).
In Ristaino v. Ross, 424 U.S. 589, 96 S.Ct. 1017, 47 L.Ed.2d 258 (1976), the Court held that the Constitution does not require that voir dire inquiry into racial prejudice by individual jurors generally be allowed. The Ristaino Court also said:
At least where crimes of violence are involved, [defendant] would require defense motions for voir dire on racial prejudice to be granted in any case where the defendant was of a different race from the victim. He would require a similar result whenever any defendant sought voir dire on racial prejudice because of the race of his own or adverse witnesses. We note that such a per se rule could not, in principle, be limited to cases involving possible racial prejudice. It would apply with equal force whenever voir dire questioning about ethnic origins was sought, and its logic could encompass questions concerning other factors, such as religious affiliation or national origin. In our hete-rogenous society policy as well as constitutional considerations militate against the divisive assumption — as a per se rule — that justice in a court of law may turn upon the pigmentation of skin, the accident of birth, or the choice of religion. * * *
Id. at 596 n. 8, 96 S.Ct. at 1021 n. 8 (citations omitted) (emphasis added). This suggests to me that the Court might hold that the Constitution does not require that voir dire inquiry into religious affiliation of individual jurors generally be allowed but that the Constitution also does not allow purposeful discrimination in jury selection on the basis of religious affiliation, since religious classifications, like racial ones, are subject to strict scrutiny.
As I said at the outset, I agree with the majority that inquiry on voir dire into religious affiliation of individual jurors generally is improper. Ordinarily there is no basis for such inquiry. The preclusion of such inquiry in no way precludes counsel from asking other questions designed to uncover flaws in individual jurors that would render them unsuitable for jury service in a particular case.
*774In this case, however, the prosecutor in fact learned of the juror’s religious affiliation and, for whatever reasons, expressly stated that the reason for striking the juror was the juror’s religious affiliation, without any voir dire of the man as to whether that religious affiliation would interfere with his ability to be a fair juror and responsibly exercise his duties as a juror. When the record of discrimination on the basis of religious affiliation is so stark, this court ought to act. I would extend the holding of Batson v. Kentucky to peremptory strikes based on religious affiliation and grant the defendant a new trial.