Court Opinion

ID: 9860242
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 23:15:44.79794+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:19:38.312795
License: Public Domain

GIVAN, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent as to Issue I. I concur as to all other issues. The majority claims the trial court erred in denying appellant’s Motion for Jury Sequestration. It is appellant’s contention our case law makes it mandatory upon the trial court to sequester the jury upon motion of the defendant in any case where the defendant faces the death penalty. In support appellant cites Cobb v. State, (1980) Ind., 412 N.E.2d 728. In that case, Justice Pivarnik stated: “Sequestration of the jury is mandatory only when the defendant faces the potential sentence of death.” Id., 412 N.E.2d at 732.
An examination of the cases reveals clearly at one time the law was that in felony cases of all kinds the jury could not be separated once the trial had begun without the consent of the defendant. See, Silverman v. State, (1927) 199 Ind. 225, 156 N.E. 549; Faulkner v. State, (1923) 193 Ind. 663, 141 N.E. 514; Anderson v. State, (1867) 28 Ind. 22; Quinn v. State, (1860) 14 Ind. 589. Then in Whitaker v. State, (1960) 240 Ind. 676, 168 N.E.2d 212, a death penalty case, Justice Jackson writing for the majority, held the common law rule was a sound one and should not be changed. Justice Arterburn in dissent agreed with the majority that in capital cases it was reversible error to deny the defendant’s timely motion for jury sequestration. However, he took the position that in non-capital cases the matter of jury sequestration should be discretionary with the trial court and such decisions not to sequester the jury should be reversible error only upon a showing of prejudice.
Subsequently the rule proposed by Justice Arterburn for non-capital cases in Whitaker, supra, became the law. The new rule *872was first adopted without acknowledgement of prior case law on the subject in Packwood v. State, (1963) 244 Ind. 585, 193 N.E.2d 494. There this Court stated:
“Appellants assert ... ‘the jury cannot be permitted to separate over the objection of the defendant.’ However, appellants cite no authority in support of this rule. In any event, the matter of the separation of the jury during trial is ordinarily discretionary with the trial court. Any error with respect thereto must rest upon an abuse of discretion by the trial court. C.J.S. Trials § 45 p. 113.” Id. at 591, 193 N.E.2d at 497.
Since Packwood, supra, there have been frequent reaffirmations of the rule that in non-capital cases the decision to sequester the jury is discretionary with the trial court and is reversible error only where abuse of discretion is shown. See, e.g., Cobb, supra; Drollinger v. State, (1980) Ind., 408 N.E.2d 1228; Norton v. State, (1980) Ind., 408 N.E.2d 514; Owen v. State, (1978) 269 Ind. 513, 381 N.E.2d 1235; Vaughn v. State, (1978) 269 Ind. 142, 378 N.E.2d 859; Roberts v. State, (1978) 268 Ind. 127, 373 N.E.2d 1103; Kincaid v. State, (1976) 265 Ind. 345, 354 N.E.2d 199; Greenwalt v. State, (1965) 246 Ind. 608, 209 N.E.2d 254.
However, the rule that jury sequestration is required upon timely motion of the defendant in capital cases is still the law in Indiana. Today I believe the time has come to overrule Whitaker, supra, in that regard. The standard for determining the defendant’s right to a sequestered jury should be the same as in non-capital cases. That is, the decision whether or not to sequester the jury should be discretionary with the trial court and reversible error only where there has been an abuse of that discretion. The kind and amount of pretrial and trial publicity that prejudices a jury against a defendant, if they are exposed to that publicity, cannot be presumed to exist in capital cases to any greater extent than in non-capital cases. I feel it is proper to require the same showing of prejudice by a defendant facing the death penalty that is required of the defendant in a non-capital case.
In the case at bar, the record is devoid of any evidence of excessive publicity about the trial that may have influenced the jury in reaching its verdict. Additionally, the trial judge repeatedly admonished the jury to disregard any publicity about the case prior to recesses in the trial. Upon commencement of proceedings each day, he questioned the jury as to whether any of them had read or heard any media accounts of the trial and proceeded only after receiving the appropriate negative responses. Given the absence of evidence in the record of any excessive trial publicity to which the jury could have been exposed and the precautions taken by the trial judge to assure the jury had not been exposed to any trial publicity at all, I see no prejudice to appellant that would lead to the conclusion that the denial of the sequestration motion was an abuse of discretion. I would hold there was no error in not sequestering the jury.
PIVARNIK, J., concurs.