Court Opinion

ID: 9786025
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 23:45:35.143819+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:36:40.854202
License: Public Domain

LILE, Vice Presiding Judge:
Dissents.
¶ 1 This jury was allowed to separate following the court’s instructions and prior to closing arguments in the guilt stage, over the objection of the defendant. The trial court’s determination on sequestration at that point is entirely discretionary under 22 O.S.2001, *49§ 853. No facts are asserted to establish that this failure to sequester was an abuse of discretion. There is no claim that anything improper occurred to influence the jury. There is no claim that this is the type of case where public feehng or news coverage would require sequestration.
¶ 2 The jury was again allowed to separate after instructions and after closing arguments in the punishment stage. No one objected. We have repeatedly held that under these circumstances any error is waived. Wackerly v. State, 2000 OK CR 15, 12 P.3d 1, ceit. denied, 532 U.S. 1028, 121 S.Ct. 1976, 149 L.Ed.2d 768 (2001). Again, there is no claim that anything improper happened with the jury. There is no claim that any prejudice arose from these separations.
¶ 3 In the course of a trial, the jury will be allowed to separate many times. These common rest breaks during the day, night recesses and other separations are preceded by repeated admonishments to the jury not to discuss the case among themselves or with others. The admonishments work successfully in thousands of trials. Only very rarely are these admonishments inadequate. Only very rarely does something happen to breach the sanctity of the jury.
¶ 4 In this particular case, there is not even an allegation that anything improper happened and certainly no evidence that the jury was subjected to any improper influence. So, why must this case be retried; why does the Court require such a drastic remedy when nothing went wrong with the trial.
¶ 5 The trial court allowed the jury to go eat lunch after first stage closing argument and before being sequestered for deliberations. No one asserts that there were any improper influences upon the jury. Admonishments which worked throughout the trial are suddenly deemed inadequate to protect the jury during lunch and a later identical separation is no problem for this Court. There is no sound reason for this reversal. It is upon the most technical of grounds and ordered in the absence of even a hint of any prejudice. Any error here lies not with the trial court but with this Court.