State v. King

2008 UT 54, 190 P.3d 1283, 610 Utah Adv. Rep. 3, 2008 Utah LEXIS 109, 2008 WL 2965732
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 5, 2008
Docket20060988
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 2008 UT 54 (State v. King) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. King, 2008 UT 54, 190 P.3d 1283, 610 Utah Adv. Rep. 3, 2008 Utah LEXIS 109, 2008 WL 2965732 (Utah 2008).

Opinion

NEHRING, Justice:

INTRODUCTION

T1 For the second time we rule on a challenge to the composition of the jury that convicted Gordon King of aggravated sexual abuse of a child. On certiorari from the court of appeals, we previously held that Mr. King both failed to preserve his objection to the seating of two potentially biased jurors and failed to demonstrate why his oversight should be excused. We remanded the case to the court of appeals to consider whether the conduct of Mr. King's attorney that allowed the potentially biased jurors to be seated constituted ineffective assistance of counsel. The court of appeals held that it did and granted Mr. King a new trial It concluded that Mr. King's counsel rendered deficient service to Mr. King by failing to adequately probe two jurors for potential bias before the jury was empaneled. The court of appeals then found that it could presume that the seating of the two suspect jurors prejudiced Mr. King. State v. King (King III), 2006 UT App 355, ¶ 16, 144 P.3d 222.

12 We again have granted certiorari, this time to review whether the court of appeals erred when it presumed that the failure of Mr. King's trial counsel to further investigate the potential biases of prospective jurors prejudiced Mr. King, thus relieving Mr. King of the obligation to prove that the presence of the two potentially biased jurors actually prejudiced him. We hold that it did and reverse.

BACKGROUND

13 Mr. King was charged with aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first degree felony, after his daughter's friend reported that Mr. King had inappropriately touched her during a sleepover at his home. Mr. King pled not guilty, and his case went to trial.

T4 During the jury selection process, the trial judge read the contents of the information document to the prospective jurors. The information described the nature of the crime for which Mr. King was standing trial. The judge then asked the prospective jurors if anyone had "formed an opinion" about the case because it involved sexual abuse of a child. One person raised a hand. The judge then asked whether any of the prospective jurors "would be unable to be fair and impartial" if called upon to serve as a juror in a child sexual abuse case. The prospective juror who indicated she had formed an opinion about the case was joined by four more prospective jurors in giving affirmative responses to this question, bringing to five the total number of prospective jurors who had disclosed potential bias.

5 The judge then emphasized that while the crime with which Mr. King was charged might be "harder for us to hear about, listen to and deal with" than other offenses, the defendant had, at this stage of the proceedings, merely been charged with the crime and had not been convicted. After reiterating that the State bore the burden of proving Mr. King's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the judge asked, "Are you people of the opinion that, because of the mere nature of the case, you couldn't listen and be fair?" *1285 Only the person who had already twice raised a hand did so again.

T6 This prospective juror and those who questioned their ability to be fair and impartial were then asked follow-up questions to expose possible biases. Of this group of five prospective jurors, three doubted their ability to be fair and impartial because of their direct or indirect experience with child sexual abuse. The remaining two jurors did not identify any direct or indirect experience with abuse but believed the subject matter of the case would have an emotional impact on them that would interfere with their ability to be fair and impartial.

T7 The trial judge asked the entire panel of prospective jurors if there was "anyone else who either ha[d] been a victim of abuse or hald] had a family member or close personal friend who hald] been the victim of abuse." Six additional prospective jurors indicated that they had. The trial judge asked these six jurors if their experiences with abuse "would interfere with [their] ability to be fair and impartial." One of the group indicated that it would. She was later dismissed for cause. The other five signaled their belief that they could be fair and impartial by not raising their hands in response to the judge's question.

T8 After noting the names of the remaining five jurors who said they or someone they knew had been a victim of abuse, the trial judge asked them to step out of the courtroom and remain by the door so that she could individually question them to determine the existence or extent of bias. Of the five jurors who indicated that they thought they would be "fair and impartial" despite an experience with abuse, only three were questioned by the trial judge. The remaining two, jurors No. 2 and No. 18, were not separately questioned. Neither counsel for the defense nor counsel for the prosecution noticed the omission, and after the trial judge declared that the court had "probably talked to everyone else" who had indicated some kind of experience or exposure to abuse, the entire panel was then questioned by both sides. None of the questions directly related to the issue of abuse. Both sides passed the panel for cause and exercised their peremptory challenges. Jurors No. 2 and No. 18 were seated as members of the jury.

T9 After the trial, the jury returned a guilty verdict on the lesser included offense of sexual abuse of a child, a second degree felony. The trial court reduced the conviction to third degree felony attempted sexual abuse of a child pursuant to Utah Code seetion 76-3-402. Mr. King appealed his conviction. He argued that the trial court erred by failing to individually question jurors No. 2 and No. 18. He also contended that his counsel provided ineffective assistance by permitting the potentially biased jurors to be seated.

{10 The court of appeals reversed Mr. King's conviction. State v. King (King I), 2004 UT App 210, ¶ 27, 95 P.3d 282. It held that the trial court failed to conduct a sufficiently searching inquiry into the potential biases of jurors No. 2 and No. 18. Id. The court of appeals did not reach the question of whether Mr. King's counsel was ineffective.

T 11 The State petitioned for certiorari. It faulted the court of appeals for granting Mr. King a new trial on an issue he had not preserved for appeal. We granted certiorari and agreed with the State that the court of appeals erred when it excused Mr. King's failure to preserve his objection to the seating of jurors No. 2 and No. 18. We held that the trial court did not commit plain error when it seated the potentially biased jurors, reversed the court of appeals, and remanded with instructions to consider Mr. King's ineffective assistance of counsel claim. State v. King (King II), 2006 UT 3, ¶ 26, 131 P.3d 202.

112 The court of appeals followed our instructions and again reversed Mr. King's conviction. King III, 2006 UT App 355, ¶ 16, 144 P.3d 222. Applying the test for ineffective assistance of counsel announced in Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 LEd.2d 674 (1984), the court of appeals held that Mr. King successfully established that the presence of jurors No. 2 and No. 18 could be traced to the ineffective assistance of Mr. King's counsel. King III, 2006 UT App 355, 1 9, 144 P.3d 222.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2008 UT 54, 190 P.3d 1283, 610 Utah Adv. Rep. 3, 2008 Utah LEXIS 109, 2008 WL 2965732, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-king-utah-2008.