White v. State

821 A.2d 459, 374 Md. 232, 2003 Md. LEXIS 171
Court of Appeals of Maryland·Decided April 15, 2003·No. No. 17·Published·Cited by 44 cases

Opinions

RAKER, J.

We granted certiorari in this case to decide two questions: whether the Court of Special Appeals should have applied Dingle v. State, 361 Md. 1, 759 A.2d 819 (2000), in deciding whether the trial court erred in the voir dire examination of the jury venire, and whether petitioner’s statement was inadmissible in evidence because the police officers interrogated him in violation of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966).1 The Court of Special Appeals, in an unreported opinion, resolved both issues in favor of the State, thus, affirming the petitioner’s conviction. We shall affirm.

I.

On February 7, 2000, at J. Brown Jewelers in Baltimore County, petitioner and three other men participated in an armed robbery. An off-duty Baltimore County police officer, Bruce Prothero, was working as a security guard at the store and was shot and killed by one of the robbers. Petitioner was charged by the Grand Jury for Baltimore County with first degree murder, armed robbery, first degree assault and use of [237] a handgun in the commission of a felony. The jury convicted him of first degree murder, armed robbery and the handgun violation. The court sentenced him to life without parole for the felony murder and a term of twenty years concurrent incarceration on the handgun violation.

The Circuit Court began jury selection on August 22 and concluded on August 23, 2000. The court first conducted general voir dire of the entire panel, followed by individual voir dire of each venire person at the bench. Four voir dire questions, in compound form, were asked by the court in the general voir dire. The questions were as follows:

“Is there any prospective juror, or a relative of a prospective juror who has ever been employed in any fashion at any time by any type of law enforcement agency, either civilian or military, and because of that employment you believe that you could not render a fair and impartial verdict in this case? If your answer is yes, please stand now and give your juror call-in number only.
“Has any member of this jury panel ever served as a juror before either as a grand juror or a petit juror and, if so, that would render you incapable of making a fair and impartial verdict in this case, if you were selected. Please stand now if your answer is yes and give your juror call-in number only.
“Is there any prospective juror who has a relative, or you, yourself, who are presently or who formerly worked either as an attorney, a law clerk, a paralegal or attend a school relating the field of law and because of that you believe you could not render a fair and impartial verdict in this case, if you were selected? If your answer is yes, please stand now and give your juror call-in number only.
“Is there any prospective juror who has any connection with the Maryland Crime Coalition, or other advocacy group or lobbying group for victim rights or offender punishment, specifically, handgun control, rape crisis counseling, victims rights organizations, for example, the Stephanie Roper Committee, child abuse advocates, spousal abuse, Mothers [238] Against Drunk Driving, Students Against Drunk Driving and, because of your participation with such an organization, you believe you could not render a fair and impartial verdict in this case, if you were selected? If your answer is yes, please stand now and give your juror call-in number only.”

Petitioner objected to the compound questions and asked the court to require the prospective juror to answer separately each part of the question. The court refused.

Following the general voir ñire, the trial court conducted individual voir ñire examination of each member of the venire panel. Over the next two days, the court questioned each prospective juror at the bench. The case had generated a great deal of media attention, and during the individual voir ñire at the bench, the court’s inquiry was directed specifically toward pre-trial publicity, the general question as to whether the prospective juror could be fair and impartial, issues generated by the general voir ñire and any follow-up questions counsel requested the court to ask of the jurors.

The jury returned its verdict on August 24, 2000, prior to this Court’s decision in Dingle, which was filed on September 15, 2000. The Circuit Court imposed sentence after the filing of that decision, however, on September 20, 2000.

Petitioner noted a timely appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. In an unreported opinion, the Court of Special Appeals affirmed, holding that Dingle v. State did not control this case for two reasons: First, that the individual voir ñire conducted by the trial court insured an impartial jury, and second, that Dingle should not be applied retroactively. This Court granted petitioner’s Petition for Writ of Certiorari. White v. State, 369 Md. 179, 798 A.2d 552 (2002).

II.

In Dingle, this Court held that the form of the voir ñire inquiry conducted by the trial judge prevented the court from impaneling a fair and impartial jury. We reasoned that “a voir ñire inquiry in which a venire person is required to respond only if his or her answer is in the affirmative to both [239] parts of a question directed at discovering the venire persons’ experiences and associations and their effect on that venire person’s qualification to serve as a juror, and producing information only about those who respond ... allows, if not requires, the individual venire person to decide his or her ability to be fair and impartial.” Dingle, 361 Md. at 21, 759 A.2d at 830. We concluded that “[wjithout information bearing on the relevant experiences or associations of the affected individual venire persons who were not required to respond, the court simply does not have the ability, and, therefore, is unable to evaluate whether such persons are capable of conducting themselves impartially.” Id., 759 A.2d at 830.

Petitioner argues that the two-part questions used by the trial judge in this case are virtually identical to the questions condemned by this Court in Dingle. He maintains that where defense counsel made the same objections to the same voir dire questions as in Dingle and where this case had not been finally decided on direct appeal at the time Dingle was decided, the rationale of Dingle should be applied and this case should be reversed.

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White v. State, 821 A.2d 459, 374 Md. 232, 2003 Md. LEXIS 171 (Md. 2003).

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