State v. Monroe

• Citation: 329 So.2d 193
• Decision Date: 03 November 1975
• Docket Number: No. 56419,56419
• Parties: STATE of Louisiana, Appellee, v. Arthur J. MONROE, Jr., Appellant.
• Court: Supreme Court of Louisiana

Page 193

329 So.2d 193

STATE of Louisiana, Appellee, v. Arthur J. MONROE, Jr., Appellant.

No. 56419.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

Nov. 3, 1975.

Dissenting Opinion Nov. 24, 1975.

On Rehearing March 29, 1976.

Wilfret R. McKee, New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Louise Korns, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

TATE, Justice.

The defendant Monroe was convicted of armed robbery, La.R.S. 14:64, and sentenced to twenty years at hard labor.

Reversible error is presented by bills of exception numbers one and two. They relate to a substantial curtailment of voir dire examination of prospective jurors by the defense. As will be noted, voir dire examination is an important trial right given to both the state and the defendant to aid them in securing an impartial trial jury and to uncover predisposition or attitudes of prospective jurors which might serve as the basis for causal or peremptory challenge.

Context Facts

The trial court's rulings foreclosed lines of inquiry concerning the prospective jurors' attitudes toward the presumption of innocence, to which those accused of crime are entitled before our courts. The rulings were especially prejudicial in the light of the context facts of this prosecution.

The robbery occurred in the early afternoon. The victim, a route salesman, was robbed at gunpoint of his wallet and eight dollars or so in change. He did not see the face of the robber, nor could he ever identify him. He did, however, note that the robber was wearing a red, white, and blue plaid shirt and so reported to the police shortly after the robbery.

In roving the neighborhood about thirty minutes later, a police officer saw the defendant Monroe, wearing a shirt similar to the one described by the victim. Monroe was standing on the sidewalk, three blocks from the robbery, in conversation with another man. The officer approached Monroe, grasping his revolver, to interrogate him. He saw an expression of shock and surprise on the face of Monroe, who started to walk away. When the officer ordered Monroe to stop, the defendant commenced running away.

Within a minute or so, under continuous observation of the police, Monroe was stopped. He had a pistol and one dollar and ninety cents in change. The wallet and amount of change stolen in the robbery were never located, nor did the officers see the suspect drop them during the chase, nor did immediate examination of his path locate them.

The defendant Monroe took the stand. He stated he was talking to a friend on the street, about a block from his own home, on his way to his employment. On his person was some marijuana and a pistol (which he carried, he said, to protect himself because of a quarrel over a girlfriend). Because of this illegal possession, he said, he ran when he thought the police officer was going to search him. Other uncontradicted evidence produced by Monroe showed that he had never been arrested before and was of quiet, law-abiding good character.

The defense thus raised was that, although the state undoubtedly proved a robbery beyond a reasonable doubt, the accused himself was a suspect simply because he wore a shirt similar to one worn by the robber. (In fairness to the state, it also relied upon a fingerprint taken from the truck which matched that of the left index finger of the defendant.)

The Issue

The defense counsel had first asked the prospective jurors if they could acquit the defendant if the state failed to prove its case against him beyond a reasonable doubt. After receiving their affirmative responses, the defendant attempted to explore more concretely the juror's understanding of this general principle. Sua sponte, the trial court curtailed further voir dire examination along the lines of inquiry raised by the following two questions:

'Does it present any problems to you or do you have difficulty in accepting the fact that it is better to see a crime go unpunished than to find the wrong man guilty. Can you accept that?' (Bill of Exception No. 1.)

'If the State should fail to prove who did in fact commit the crime and you are satisfied that we didn't, could you find him not guilty?' (Bill of Exception No. 2.)

The record does not indicate that any further voir dire examination was permitted on the issue.

The trial court disallowed the first question as argumentative and the second as repetitious. (The latter reasoning was solely because the defense had already secured juror assent to the general principle that they must acquit if the state failed to prove the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.)

In State v. Drumgo, 283 So.2d 463 (La.1973), decided some time prior to the present trial, in accordance with long-established jurisprudence we held that this type of questioning was proper to explore the jurors' attitudes towards the presumption of innocence to which the accused is entitled, La.C.cr.P. art. 804(A). ¹ The purpose would be to establish the basis if any for exercise of a challenge for cause, La.C.Cr.P. art. 797(2) (as well as, of course, for an intelligent exercise of peremptory challenges, La.C.Cr.P. art. 799).

In Drumgo, although we recognized the error, we held it harmless, partly because, there, our examination of the entire voir dire examination indicated that in fact defense counsel was afforded wide latitude in his voir dire examination. Here, however, neither the record nor the trial court's per curiam indicate other than that the questions were disallowed as repetitious or argumentative probing of the veniremen's assent that they understood the generally expressed general principle that an accused must be acquitted if the state failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Thus, we are not, here, faced with a situation where the questions were truly repetitious nor where wide latitude or voir dire examination had in fact afforded the accused a reasonable opportunity to uncover predispositions or misunderstandings of the veniremen which might militate against their impartial service as jurors or might afford a reasonable basis by which the defendant might exercise his constitutional right to challenge jurors peremptorily, see La.Constitution of 1921, Art. I, Section 10 and Louisiana Constitution of 1974, Art. I, Section 17. The foreclosing of the lines of inquiry effectively denied the accused the voir dire right of ascertaining the prospective jurors' understanding of an attitude toward the presumption of innocence, as disclosed by minimal but specific questioning as to its application-- including not only that the state prove that an armed robbery had occurred beyond a reasonable doubt, but also that the accused himself beyond a reasonable doubt had committed it.

As we noted in State v. Brumley, 320 So.2d 129 (1975) in likewise reversing a conviction because of the denial to an accused of voir dire rights:

'A defendant who is unable to inquire of potential jurors as to any tendentious attitude toward these criteria is unable to effectively make challenges for cause and peremptory challenges Defendant's questions were not an attempt to lecture on the law . . . nor were they an attempt to induce the jurors to commit themselves in advance. Nor does it offer adequate security toward obtaining an unbiased jury, for a potential juror, in response to the general question whether he will accept the law as given him by the court, to recite that he will accept such instruction when the juror has no concept of the complex nature of the law and where the issue is so interrelated to basic rights * * *.'

The state suggests that the error was cured by the trial court's instructions to the prospective jurors that they must accept the law as given to them by the court, to which they assented, and by general instructions as to the presumption of innocence. This suggestion overlooks the historic function of voir dire examination.

As we stated in State v. Hills, 241 La. 345, 129 So.2d 12, 31 (1961):

It is a general view as to voir dire examination that the defendant in a criminal prosecution is entitled to make reasonable and pertinent inquiries of the prospective juror so that he may exercise intelligently and wisely his right of peremptory challenge--since each party has the right to put questions to a juror not only to show that there exists proper grounds for a challenge for cause, but to elicit facts to enable him to decide whether or not he will make a peremptory challenge. For this reason, a wide latitude is allowed counsel in examining jurors on their voir dire, and the scope of inquiry is best governed by a liberal discretion on the part of the Court so that if there is any likelihood that some prejudice is in the juror's mind which will even subconsciously affect his decision, this may be uncovered. It is by examination into the attitudes and inclinations of jurors before they are sworn to try a case that litigants are enabled to reject those persons, by use of peremptory challenges where necessary, who are deemed to be unlikely to approach a decision in a detached and objective manner. The Constitution itself (La.Const. of 1921, Art. 1, Sec. 10) guarantees to the accused the right to peremptorily challenge jurors . . .. The Intelligent exercise of the right of rejection, by use of those twelve peremptory challenges, is the meat of the privilege, and can be substantially weakened by a restriction of questions--the answers to which might be regarded as informative of a juror's attitude and therefore of vital importance to his defense.'

See also other instances where convictions were reversed because of improper curtailment of voir dire examination, such as: State v. Jones, 282 So.2d 422 (La.1973); State v. Crittle, 263 La. 418, 268 So.2d 604 (1972) (opinion authored by Hamlin, J.); State v. Henry, 196 La. 217, 198 So. 910 (1940); State v. Guidry, 160 La. 655, 107 So.2d 479 (1926)...