What is the test for excusing a prospective juror from a capital punishment trial?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Cummings, 18 Cal.Rptr.2d 796, 4 Cal.4th 1233, 850 P.2d 1 (Cal. 1993):

Seventeen prospective jurors were excused for cause based on their opposition to capital punishment. Defendants argue that of those 17, 4 did not express unequivocal opposition or inability to impose the penalty of death in any case and were, therefore, excused improperly. Cummings claims that a fifth prospective juror was also excused improperly. Defendants argue that excusing these jurors denied defendants both the fair trial guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment and their Sixth Amendment right to a jury drawn from a fair cross-section of the community. The second claim has been repeatedly rejected by this court. (People v. Fields (1983) 35 Cal.3d 329, 349-353, 197 Cal.Rptr. 803, 673 P.2d 680.) Defendants offer no basis for reconsideration of those decisions.

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