 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
State v. Huerta6/24/1993
ship," but it is a game that I do not understand. Parties always have a legitimate interest in developing the bias of jurors before a jury is sworn. It is hard to imagine why the adoption of a harmless error rule would encourage such a practice, but even if it did, what is the harm of that? There is either a basis for a challenge for cause or there is not.
The court says that it cannot presume that a trial is fair when a trial Judge erroneously fails to dismiss a biased juror for cause even where the juror is dismissed peremptorily. But the fairness of a trial is Judged by the fairness of the jury which hears the case. Once the exercise of the peremptory strike excuses the juror who should have been excused for cause, a court can not only presume that the trial is fair, but it will know that it is. The offending juror will have been removed.
The court is concerned that by being forced to use a peremptory challenge when a challenge for cause should have been honored a party has one less peremptory strike. But this case affords us no opportunity to consider that issue. Here it was undisputed that even if the defendant had a peremptory strike, he would not have used it on any of the remaining venire persons. Thus, there is no "waste" in this case. Ante, at 266, 855 P.2d at 780. But, were it otherwise, it would not matter. Once counsel passes a panel for cause, by definition, the parties will have a fair and impartial jury. Peremptory strikes are gravy. One of their purposes is to make up for the errors of the trial Judge. So for example, as in this case, when the trial Judge fails to properly honor a challenge for cause, the peremptory strike can be used. The trial can be saved. A provision for peremptory strikes is not unlike a provision for alternate jurors. They both promote the efficient administration of Justice.
Peremptory strikes no longer enjoy the exalted position once described in Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 85 S.Ct. 824, 13 L.Ed.2d 759 (1965), overruled by Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986). Batson reflects a more contemporary view. Indeed, Justice Marshall proposed abandoning peremptories altogether in criminal trials. 476 U.S. at 107-08, 106 S.Ct. at 1729 (Marshall, J., Concurring). Accord James H. Kemper, Let's Do Away With Voir Dire, Arizona Attorney, June 1993, at 7, 10. Our approach to trials, and juries, is no longer wooden. Cf. B. Michael Dann, " Learning Lessons" and "Speaking Rights": Creating Educated and Democratic Juries, 68 Ind.L.J. (forthcoming 1993). Today's decision fails to reflect this new reality. Here, there was neither prejudice nor an allegation of prejudice. Thus, today's decision does not vindicate the right to a fair trial. We just promote an artificially sacrosanct understanding of a peremptory challenge. For all these reasons, I Dissent.
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Arizona Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|