Court Opinion

ID: 9607782
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:02:00.559734+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:02:40.370176
License: Public Domain

PARKS, Presiding Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent to the majority’s opinion. Title 22 O.S.1981, § 655 provides that in all first degree murder prosecutions, a defendant is entitled to nine (9) peremptory challenges. In this case, the appellant was afforded just five (5) peremptory challenges, and he exercised all five. While it is ture the defense did not object to this irregular and unlawful procedure, Title 22 O.S.1981, § 651 places an affirmative duty on the trial court to properly inform an accused regarding the jury selection process, in order that proper objections may be lodged. The defendant was not advised in this case. It is not proper to say a knowing and intelligent waiver has oc-cured when the trial court failed to give the statutory admonition. The right to trial before an impartial jury is the hallmark of our American system of justice, and is guaranteed by both the Federal and Oklahoma constitutions. See U.S. Const. amend VI, and Okl. Const. art. II, §§ 19, 20. In order to implement this constitutional right, the Legislature enacted Section 655, regulating the number of peremptory challenges necessary to insure a fair trial by an impartial jury. Failure to afford an accused to the correct number of peremptory challenges should result in reversal, if the accused exercised all those challenges he was allowed by the trial court and did not affirmatively waive those challenges allowed by law. I dissent.