death proofing juries

[freepcrusher]

anyone here think it might be unconstitutional? I know in Texas, they have a policy that in a case where the prosecution seeks the DP, you have to say that you support the DP to get on the jury. If pro-DP people are more likely to convict someone than anti-DP people (I'm not sure that's the case, but lets assume so) - isn't that giving defendants a bad hand in the guilt phase?

[Dereich]

You don't have to say that you support it. If it was forced into a single question, any competent attorney would phrase the question to be something like "If someone was found guilty of the crime of would you be willing to consider the death penalty as a potential punishment?"

You'll have a rough time convincing the court that striking people who refuse to even consider using the death penalty is unconstitutional. And if an attorney DID have a court that wouldn't disqualify those jurors for cause, the prosecutor could disqualify them anyway using their peremptory challenges.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

And if an attorney DID have a court that wouldn't disqualify those jurors for cause, the prosecutor could disqualify them anyway using their peremptory challenges.

If a judge wouldn't disqualify anti-DP jurors for cause, why would he allow a question like that to be asked?  The prosecutor would have to predict which potential jurors would be anti-DP in that case.