What is the current process for selecting a jury for a death penalty jury?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from Hovey v. Superior Court, 168 Cal.Rptr. 128, 28 Cal.3d 1, 616 P.2d 1301 (Cal. 1980):

Haney's findings indicate that the current process for selecting capital jurors creates certain side effects which shape the jury's attitudes toward a death sentence. The courts are appropriately concerned if procedures encourage "(t)endencies, no matter how slight, toward the selection of jurors by any method other than a process which will insure a trial by a representative group." (Glasser v. United States, supra, 315 U.S. at p. 86, 62 S.Ct. at p. 472.) It has always been the judiciary's duty to counteract processes which generate in jurors "a bias in favor of the prosecution." (Ibid.) The high court has been vigilant in its review of procedures which "undermin(e)" and "weaken( ) the institution of jury trial." (Ibid.) These "undermining processes . . . should be sturdily resisted. . . . Steps innocently taken may one by one lead to the irretrievable impairment of substantial liberties." (Ibid.)

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