People v. Harris
| Decision Date | 18 October 2012 |
| Citation | 978 N.E.2d 1246,954 N.Y.S.2d 777,19 N.Y.3d 679,2012 N.Y. Slip Op. 06990 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Calvin L. HARRIS, Appellant. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Easton Thompson Kasperek Shiffrin LLP, Rochester (William T. Easton and Brian Shiffrin of counsel), for appellant.
Gerald A. Keene, District Attorney, Owego, for respondent.
Michele Harris, mother of four young children and defendant's estranged wife, was last seen on the evening of September 11, 2001. At approximately 7:00 a.m. the following day the Harris family babysitter, Barbara Thayer, discovered Michele's unoccupied minivan at the bottom of the quarter-mile driveway of the Harris residence, which is situated on a 200–acre estate in a remote area of Tioga County. Although the Harrises were in the process of divorcing, they continued living in the same residence, albeit sleeping in separate rooms.
After driving Ms. Thayer to the end of the driveway to retrieve Michele's vehicle, defendant, the owner of several car dealerships, left for work. When a friend of Michele's called the Harris household and was told by Ms. Thayer that Michele had not returned home the night before, the friend called Michele's divorce attorney who, in turn, contacted state police. Later that morning, police questioned defendant at his dealership concerning Michele's disappearance. Defendant accompanied police to his home and consented to a search of his residence and Michele's minivan, eventually leaving the officers at the residence and returning to work. Later that day, defendant gave police written consent to search his residence and vehicles.
On September 14, 2001, evidence technicians discovered blood on the tiled floor of a kitchen alcove, on door moldings and surfaces leading to the garage and on the wall of the garage leading into the house. At that point, police obtained a search warrant and, upon returning the following day, discovered blood on the garage floor as well.1
The weekend following Michele's disappearance, defendant and his children visited defendant's brother in Cooperstown. During dinner, defendant's sisters-in-law Francine and Mary Jo Harris confronted defendant about statements he had allegedly made to Michele. According to Francine and Mary Jo, Michele told them in March 2001 that defendant threatened her by stating that he would not need a gun to kill her, that police would never find her body and that he would never be arrested.2 The police investigation, spanning several years, produced neither a body nor a weapon.
In 2005, defendant was indicted on one count of murder in the second degree. A jury convicted him of that offense in the spring of 2007. The day after the verdict, a local farmhand came forward with information that he had seen Michele and a man in his mid–20s at the end of the Harris driveway at approximately 5:30 a.m. on September 12, 2001. Armed with this new information, defense counsel moved, pursuant to CPL 330.30, to set aside the verdict. The trial court granted the motion, and its order was affirmed on appeal (55 A.D.3d 958, 865 N.Y.S.2d 386 [3d Dept.2008] ).
Given the high-profile nature of the case, there was significant media coverage in local newspapers and on television, including two national broadcasts, covering Michele's disappearance and defendant's first trial. Defense counsel made two change of venue motions prior to the retrial, citing “prejudicial publicity.” Each motion was denied, as was a third motion made by defense counsel during jury selection.
After a lengthy retrial that included extensive blood spatter and DNA evidence and testimony concerning threatening statements defendant purportedly made to Michele, a jury once again convicted defendant of murder in the second degree. The Appellate Division, in a 3–1 decision, affirmed the judgment, holding, among other things, that the verdict was supported by legally sufficient evidence, that the trial court properly denied a for-cause challenge of a prospective juror made by defendant, and that the trial court properly allowed in evidence Michele's hearsay statements to Francine and Mary Jo for the limited purpose of allowing the jury to evaluate defendant's reaction to those accusations (88 A.D.3d 83, 928 N.Y.S.2d 114 [3d Dept.2011] ). The dissenting Justice, in addition to arguing that the verdict was not supported by legally sufficient evidence, asserted that the trial court committed reversible error in denying defendant's for-cause challenge of the prospective juror and in giving an inadequate limiting instruction concerning Michele's hearsay statements to Francine and Mary Jo. A Justice of the Appellate Division granted defendant leave to appeal (2011 N.Y. Slip Op. 83081[U] [2011] ). We now reverse the order of the Appellate Division and remit for a new trial.
The Appellate Division properly held that the guilty verdict was supported by legally sufficient evidence. However, a critical error occurred during voir dire when County Court failed to elicit from a prospective juror an unequivocal assurance of her ability to be impartial after she apprised defense counsel that she had a preexisting opinion as to defendant's guilt or innocence.
At voir dire, the prospective juror acknowledged that she had followed the case in the media and that she had “an opinion slightly more in one direction than the other” concerning defendant's guilt or innocence. When asked by defense counsel if her opinion would impact her ability to judge the case based solely on the evidence presented at trial, the prospective juror responded, “[H]ow I feel, opinion-wise, won't be all of what I consider if I'm in the jury,” but admitted that it would be “ [a] slight part ” of what she would consider (emphasis supplied).
Defense counsel challenged the prospective juror for cause on the ground that she could not say that her preexisting opinion would have no effect on her ability to sit as a fair juror. The trial court denied the challenge and defendant utilized a peremptory challenge on the prospective juror. Defendant exhausted his peremptory challenges, and, therefore, preserved this issue for review ( seeCPL 270.20[2] ).
CPL 270.20(1)(b) provides that a party may challenge a potential juror for cause if the juror “has a state of mind that is likely to preclude him from rendering an impartial verdict based upon the evidence adduced at the trial.” We have consistently held that “a prospective juror whose statements raise a serious doubt regarding the ability to be impartial must be excused unless the juror states unequivocally on the record that he or she can be fair and impartial” (People v. Chambers, 97 N.Y.2d 417, 419, 740 N.Y.S.2d 291, 766 N.E.2d 953 [2002];see People v. Arnold, 96 N.Y.2d 358, 363, 729 N.Y.S.2d 51, 753 N.E.2d 846 [2001];People v. Johnson, 94 N.Y.2d 600, 614, 709 N.Y.S.2d 134, 730 N.E.2d 932 [2000] ). “[W]hen potential jurors themselves say they question or doubt they can be fair in the case, Trial Judges should either elicit some unequivocal assurance of their ability to be impartial when that is appropriate, or excuse the juror when that is appropriate,” since, in most cases, “[t]he worst the court will have done ... is to have replaced one impartial juror with another impartial...
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