Court Opinion

ID: 9715070
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:53:35.791957+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:31.249258
License: Public Domain

SUPPLEMENTAL OPINION ON REHEARING Mr. JUSTICE WINELAND delivered the opinion of the court: Upon defendant’s petition we granted a rehearing and directed the People to file an answer. This cause is heard on the petition of the defendant and the answer of the State. Defendant’ petition is directed solely to the issue of prejudice to the defendant allegedly arising from the fact that five members of the jury that tried him had been members of the panel from which the trial jury of codefendant Taylor had been selected. Defendant reasserts the applicability and control of People v. Faulisi (1966), 34 Ill. 2d 187, 215 N.E.2d 276. In our original opinion we stated that defendant had failed to request a continuance for the purpose of obtaining a new venire in order to avoid any prejudice that might result from the use of prospective jurors in both trials. Defendant’s petition for rehearing has pointed out, and we acknowledge, that defendant did file a motion for continuance purporting to raise the issue. However, as we hereinafter point out, we doubt whether the issue was effectively raised at trial and effectively preserved in defendant’s motion for new trial. Upon rehearing, then, we will more thoroughly discuss the question of the applicability of the Faulisi case to the facts that arose in the trial of this case. In our original opinion our commentary upon the Faulisi case was limited to: “In People v. Faulisi [citation] our supreme court found that bias and prejudice [were] inherent in a situation in which a defendant must select his jury from a venire which contained venire-persons who had been jurors in defendant’s accomplices’ case.” In view of our alleged misapprehension regarding defendant’s motion for continuance we feel that further analysis of Faulisi is required. In Faulisi the entire panel of jurors from which the trial jury was to be selected was the same panel from which jurors had been selected in the trial of two co-defendants which had terminated the day before in a mistrial. In that case, none of the panel had actually served on the trial jury of the co-defendants. When the court asked whether any of the prospective jurors had any knowledge of the case, one juror stated she had been called for service in the earlier trial and stated there that she had formed an opinion which would prevent her from being impartial. The juror was excused. Another stated that he had discussed the prior case in a tavern and he was excused. A third juror stated that because of some things that had been said in the prior trial she felt she could not be fair and impartial. A fourth juror stated that she had been in the courtroom when the other case was being tried and heard some comments passed which prevented her from being impartial. The Faulisi court found the case factually similar to People v. Kirkpatrick, (1953), 413 Ill. 595, where the defendant was also tried before a jury drawn from the same panel from which jurors had been selected for the trial and conviction of a co-defendant. The Kirkpatrick and Faulisi courts stated: “Every member of the panel was examined and heard the statements of the State’s Attorney as to what the Bennett case was about. During that trial the jury selected was not confined to a particular room or place but went home at night, and after the conclusion of that trial mingled with other members of this panel in trying cases during the same term of court. Those jurors who were excused from the Bennett case sat down in the courtroom for a short while and listened to the Bennett case before departing. One or two stayed to hear the trial of the Bennett case. We do not know which of these jurors heard all of the testimony there offered. * * * One or more of this panel sat in the courtroom to hear the Bennett trial, and for all we know may have served on the jury here. Seven members of this panel served on the Bennett jury, and, even though they were excused here, they nevertheless in the meantime associated with the remaining members of the panel. Without doubt each and every member of this panel discussed the Bennett trial with each other, and it is to be expected that some opinion would naturally be formed concerning the guilt of this defendant due to his examination in that trial and the subsequent conviction of Bennett.” (People v. Kirkpatrick (1953), 413 Ill. 595, 599-600.) “Although this is not a case where the same jurors served in the separate trial of two defendants charged with the same crime, still, resolving all presumptions in favor of this defendant, it is difficult to see how a fair and impartial jury could be selected from the panel presented. (Citation.) Certainly, this panel conversed with one another, discussed the various cases and was entirely aware of the proceedings and verdict in the Bennett case. A trial of a defendant under circumstances where he must either select his jury from a panel which has in various ways been exposed to prejudice, bias and partiality (through the prior trial and conviction of another defendant jointly accused of the same crime and in which this defendant was called as a witness and forced to claim his constitutional privileges,) or exhaust all of his challenges and accept thereafter such bystanders as are summoned by the sheriff to fill the panel, cannot be consonant with due process. Such a choice can hardly be said to insure a defendant the fair, impartial jury guaranteed by our constitution.” (People v. Kirkpatrick (1953), 413 Ill. 595, 600-01; People v. Faulisi (1966), 34 Ill. 2d 187, 193.) “Bias and prejudice are inherent in a situation such as this and in our opinion the questioning by the court was insufficient to guarantee to the defendant his right to trial before an impartial jury.” People v. Faulisi (1966), 34 Ill. 2d 187, 194. The facts attendant upon the Faulisi and Kirkpatrick cases bespoke the result in those two cases. If Faulisi and Kirkpatrick are to be controlling here it must follow because of a similarity of the facts. We find that the controlling facts differ substantially. In Faulisi and Kirkpatrick the panels for selecting the jury were the same in the trial of the defendant and the co-defendant. In this case there were 29 called of approximately 140 on defendant’s jury panel who had been on the panel for the Taylor trial. None of those challenged for cause by defendant were challenged because they had been on the panel of the Taylor trial. The record does not show any of the panel at defendant’s trial had been present at the trial of Taylor. None of the panel of defendant’s trial had sat as jurors in the Taylor trial. The record affirmatively shows that there was no discussion of the Taylor trial among the panel for defendant’s trial, by the panel members from the Taylor trial or otherwise. Thus no “contamination” was possible. No member of the panel for defendant’s trial expressed any opinion, bias, prejudice or preconceived notion as a result of experience in or contact with the Taylor trial. In the case under consideration five members of the jury that tried defendant had been on the panel from which the Taylor trial jury had been selected. All the jurors who sat in the trial of Taylor and all who had been excused for cause from that trial were excluded from the panel of prospective jurors for defendant’s trial. The record further demonstrates that the court was careful to see that defendant was tried by a jury that was fair and impartial, free from any bias or prejudice that could arise from any source. Two courtrooms were utilized in the jury selection process. The panel members were kept in one courtroom and taken from there in panels of four to a second courtroom for questioning by the court and counsel regarding their fitness to serve as jurors in the case. After the panel of four was examined by the court upon general and preliminary matters, three of the four would then be excluded while the attorneys examined prospective jurors one at a time. The question of prejudice was thoroughly explored as to all jurors, including the five in question, and they were found to be without prejudice. We think it significant that after all five of the jurors who sat in trial of defendant after being on the Taylor panel had been accepted by defendant, defendant had unused peremptory challenges. The Faulisi case stated: “Bias and prejudice are inherent in a situation such as this “ * (34 Ill. 2d 187, 194.) We need not concern ourselves here with any presumption that would arise from the “situation” presented. We find that the record affirmatively shows a total absence of bias or prejudice and any presumption to the contrary is unwarranted. The defendant does not in fact point to a single instance of a biased or prejudiced juror, relying instead upon the “situation.” Turning again to the motion to continue the case it appears that the essence of the motion was to continue the case on the basis of alleged prejudicial pretrial publicity which might have resulted from accomplice Taylor’s trial. Although the motion does mention that the defendant would be prejudiced by selecting the defendant’s jury from the same panel from which Taylor’s jury was selected, this contention does not mention Faulisi and gives the reader the impression from the entire context of the motion that defendant was arguing that the jury panel would be more likely to read the accounts of Taylor’s trial than other citizens in the county. During the hearing on defendant’s motion, the Faulisi case was not mentioned nor was the section of the motion on the jury panel mentioned. The thrust of defendant’s argument was that he could not receive a fair trial due to the publicity which the recently completed trial of Taylor received. Defense counsel stated that he strenuously advised defendant that a motion for change of venue should be filed. The State, conceding that a fair trial would be difficult but not impossible to obtain in Effingham County, stated that if a motion for change of venue were filed, the State would not object. The court stated that if the motion were filed, he would be inclined to grant the motion and probably conduct the trial in Kankakee County. Defendant personally stated in open court that he desired to be tried in the county of Cook; if not in Cook County, then in Effingham County. The court stated that it refused to be placed in a position in which a defendant dictated the place of trial and refused a change of venue on defendant’s condition. On the same date the hearing was held, the court entered the order for the impanelling of the additional jurors. On the day defendant’s trial commenced, defense counsel made the challenge to the array and argued: “I believe that due to the nature of the situation and these people were excused in a trial last week, I believe that they probably spent their time reading about that trial, and that trial was spelled out in detail in the local newspapers; and consequently, I believe that the entire array has been contaminated to such extent that my client could not receive a fair trial with that array, so we will make a challenge of the entire array.” Again Faulisi was never mentioned in argument. Counsel’s argument reenforces our belief that the motion to continue was based solely on pretrial publicity considerations. Therefore, we conclude that defendant was not concerned with the bias considerations of Faulisi but only with the possibility that members of the jury panel would be more prone to read and hear news accounts of accomplice Taylor’s trial than other citizens of the county. On page 9 of our opinion, it should have been more precisely stated “[t]he proper procedure in this case at bar would have been a motion to continue” based on People v. Faulisi (1966), 34 Ill. 2d 187, 215 N.E.2d 276. We adhere to our original opinion that defendant chose the method he thought best to insure him a fair trial: he failed to allow his attorney to file a motion for change of venue; he filed a motion to continue on the basis of pretrial publicity; and he failed to file a motion or make any challenge to the jury panel on the basis of Faulisi. In dicta in our opinion, we noted that the trend of other jurisdictions is that the defendant must show bias and prejudice in a situation in which his jury is chosen from the same jury panel from which a co-defendant’s jury had been chosen or in a situation in which a potential juror had some contact with proceedings against an accomplice rather than presume bias and prejudice as is the law in Illinois. (People v. Faulisi (1966), 34 Ill. 2d 187, 215 N.E.2d 276; People v. Kirkpatrick (1953), 413 Ill. 595, 110 N.E.2d 519.) As defendant contends, this court is bound by Faulisi; however, we are only so bound if Faulisi is controlling. We would not hesitate to reverse and remand this cause for a new trial if the issue raised in Faulisi was ever presented to the trial court and denied by him. In post-trial motions, defendant alleged error due to the denial of the motion to continue, without stating any specific reasons why the denial was error. In argument on post-trial motions, this section of the post-trial motion was not argued. We conclude that a motion or any other means to continue based on Faulisi was never brought to the trial court’s attention and was never an issue in the trial of this case. For the reasons set forth we find that the Faulisi and Kirkpatrick cases are inapplicable. We conclude by deciding to adhere to our original opinion, as now modified herein upon rehearing. Affirmed. JONES, J., concurring.