California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Weaver, 111 Cal.Rptr.2d 2, 26 Cal.4th 876, 29 P.3d 103 (Cal. 2001):
In preliminary proceedings, the court organized the jury pool into groups, telling certain prospective jurors to return for voir dire after lunch, while assigning others future times and days in which they were to return to court for voir dire. Before the latter jurors left the courtroom, the trial court did not admonish them against discussing the case, reading or listening to media accounts, or visiting the scene of the crimes. Defendant acknowledges that the statutory requirement that jurors be admonished (? 1122) applies only after a jury is sworn and thus does not expressly apply to this preliminary period in the jury selection process. (People v. Horton (1995) 11 Cal.4th 1068, 1094, 47 Cal.Rptr.2d 516, 906 P.2d 478.) Nevertheless, he contends the trial court's failure to admonish the jury violated his federal constitutional rights to a fair trial, an impartial jury, and a reliable guilt and penalty verdict, as well as his analogous rights under the state Constitution.
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