Court Opinion

ID: 9852944
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:39:37.375049+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:38.174366
License: Public Domain

Justice MITCHELL
dissenting.
In State v. Cofield, 324 N.C. 452, 379 S.E.2d 834 (1989) (Cofield II), a majority of this Court held that for the selection of a grand jury foreman to be racially neutral, all grand jurors must be “considered” by the presiding judge for selection as the foreman. I did not and do not find the reasoning of the majority in applying the “consideration” test when addressing the issue of racial neutrality in the selection of a grand jury foreman to be persuasive. Instead, it has been and is my view that “article I, section 26 [of the Constitution of North Carolina] assures that every grand juror will have an equal opportunity to serve as foreman — not that all grand jurors will be ‘considered’ for that position.” Id. at 466, 379 S.E.2d at 842 (Mitchell, J., concurring in result).
For reasons discussed in my concurring opinion in Cofield II, I do not believe that in the present case either selecting one grand jury foreman by asking for volunteers, or selecting the other by permitting the outgoing grand jury foreman to select his successor on the basis of what he perceived to be that successor’s qualifications, gave all grand jurors an equal opportunity to serve as foreman. Id. at 465-66, 379 S.E.2d at 841-42. Therefore, I would vacate the verdicts and judgments against this defendant and quash the indictments returned against him by the two grand juries. Certainly, if this were a case to which the prospective holding of Cofield II applied, it could not seriously be argued that the presiding judge “considered” all grand jurors as that case requires.
*514I recognize that, in determining the proper construction and interpretation of the Constitution of North Carolina, there is no higher authority than a majority of this Court. State ex rel. Martin v. Preston, 325 N.C. 438, 385 S.E.2d 473 (1989). Accordingly, I do not intend to raise this issue again. However, I feel compelled to remind the majority one last time that — as demonstrated by this case — the “consideration” requirement it has adopted is of little practical value in determining whether the members of any group have been denied the right to an equal opportunity to serve as foreman of a grand jury.
For the foregoing reasons, I dissent.