Court Opinion

ID: 9791897
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:20:14.133241+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:39.286478
License: Public Domain

CORCORAN, Justice,
specially concurring.
I concur with the result reached by the majority, affirming defendant’s convictions and sentences. I write separately to discuss the trial court’s denial of challenges for cause as to two jurors. See rule 18.-4(b), Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure. Unlike the majority, I conclude that the trial court’s rulings were clearly abuses of discretion.1 I concur, however; I would hold that the error was harmless, because the two jurors were later struck by defendant through the use of peremptory challenges. See rule 18.4(c). There is no claim by defendant that any of the 12 jurors who found him guilty could not “render a fair and impartial verdict.” Rule 18.4(b). He has therefore failed to establish the prejudice required to find reversible error.
In Wasko v. Frankel, this court held, in the context of a civil case, that peremptory challenges are a substantial right of a party, and that forcing use of peremptory challenges to strike jurors who should have been stricken for cause denies the party this right. 116 Ariz. 288, 569 P.2d 230 (1977). Therefore, the court rejected Frankel’s contention that the trial court’s error was harmless because the juror was stricken by the Waskos’ use of a peremptory challenge. The error was held to require reversal due to the prejudice caused by compelling a party to waste one peremptory challenge. Wasko, 116 Ariz. at 290, 569 P.2d at 232. See State v. Thompson, 68 Ariz. 386, 390, 206 P.2d 1037, 1041 (1949) (“The right to peremptorily challenge jurors [in a criminal case] is an absolute right, and when this right is lost or impaired, the statutory conditions and terms setting up an authorized jury are not met”). Wasko and Thompson were most recently followed by the court of appeals in State v. Sexton, 163 Ariz. 301, 787 P.2d 1097 (App.1989), review denied Mar. 20, 1990.
Although these cases would appear to require reversal of defendant’s conviction in view of what I conclude was error by the trial court, I believe the validity of Wasko, Thompson, and Sexton has been undermined and they should be overruled. The United States Supreme Court recently upheld Oklahoma’s requirement, imposed by case law, that defendants who disagree with trial court rulings on for cause challenges must exercise peremptory challenges to cure such errors, which are only reversible if the defendant exhausts all peremptory challenges and an incompetent juror is forced upon him. Ross v. Oklahoma, 487 U.S. 81, 108 S.Ct. 2273, 101 L.Ed.2d 80 (1988).
I believe that this court should limit the right to seek reversal when peremptory challenges are exercised, as did Oklahoma. Such a rule guarantees a defendant a fair trial by an impartial jury; a defendant is entitled to no more. I would hold that the trial court erred by failing to strike the challenged jurors for cause, but find the error harmless because the two jurors were struck by use of defendant’s peremptory challenges and defendant has failed to show that a biased juror participated in his' trial.

. I cannot glean from the record why the trial judge worked so hard to try to rehabilitate and ultimately retain these two prospective jurors who obviously should have been removed. As to the voir dire of these two challenged jurors: I would prefer to have trial judges rely less on attempts to rehabilitate prospective jurors through the use of generic questions regarding “fairness” and "legal presumptions" that beget self-serving answers, and rely more on common sense.