Aldridge v. United States, 283 U.S. 308 (1931)
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U.S. Supreme Court ALDRIDGE v. UNITED STATES, 283 U.S. 308 (1931)
[Page 283 U.S. 308, 311]
ing that the question relative to 'racial prejudice' be put to the jurors, it is only reasonable to assume that counsel referred, not to immaterial matters, but to such a prejudice as would disqualify a juror because precluding an impartial verdict. The reference to what cousel had heard as to the attitude of a juror on the previous trial, where the jury had disagreed, indicated the purpose of the question, which was clear enough to invite appropriate action by the court. If the court had permitted the question, it doubtless would have been properly qualified. But the court, interrupting counsel, disposed of the inquiry summarily. The court failed to ask any question which could be deemed to cover the subject. If the defendant was entitled to have the jurors asked whether they had any racial prejudice, by reason of the fact that the defendant was a negro and the deceased a white man, which would prevent their giving a fair and impartial verdict, we cannot properly disregard the court's refusal merely because of the form in which the inquiry was presented.
The propriety of such an inquiry has been generally recognized. In Pinder v. State, 27 Fla. 370, 8 So. 837, 838, 26 Am. St. Rep. 75, the counsel for the accused sought to have the jurors asked on their voir dire: 'Could you give the defendant, who is a negro, as fair and impartial a trial as you could a white man, and give him the same advantage and protection as you would a white man upon the same evidence?' The Supreme Court of Florida held that the refusal of the court to allow the question was error and reversed the conviction. [Footnote 1] In Hill v. State, 112 Miss. 260, 72 So. 1003, the
[Page 283 U.S. 308, 313]
Fendrick v. State, 39 Tex. Cr. R. 147, 45 S. W. 589; State v. Sanders, 103 S. C. 216, 88 S. E. 10.
The right to examine jurors on the voir dire as to the existence of a disqualifying state of mind has been upheld with respect to other races than the black race, and in relation to religious and other prejudices of a serious character. Potter v. State, 86 Tex. Cr. R. 380, 384, 216 S. W. 886; People v. Reyes, 5 Cal. 347, 349; Watson v. Whitney, 23 Cal. 375, 379; People v. Car Soy, 57 Cal. 102; Horst v. Silverman, 20 Wash. 233, 234, 55 P. 52, 72 Am. St. Rep. 97. In People v. Reyes, supra, Mexicans were charged with assault with intent to commit murder, and conviction was reversed because of the refusal to allow questions to determine whether a prospective juror was a member of the Know Nothing party, and whether he had taken any oath or obligation which resulted in prejudice, or whether independent of such an oath he entertained a prejudice, which would prevent him from giving the accused a fair trial. [Footnote 3]
[Page 283 U.S. 308, 318]
the trial judge to ask prospective jurors something relative to racial prejudice. And certainly I am unable to affirm that they were wrong.
Section 391 of the U. S. Code (28 USCA 391), I think, was intended to prevent escape of culprits from prompt deserved punishment in cases like this. Congress had clear right to put the limitation on courts of review and the enactment should be given effect according to its purpose.
Unhappily, the enforcement of our criminal laws is scandalously ineffective. Crimes of violence multiply; punishment walks lamely. Courts ought not to increase the difficulties by magnifying theoretical possibilities. It is their province to deal with matters actual and material; to promote order and not to hinder it by excessive theorizing of or by magnifying what in practice is not really important.
I think the judgment below should be affirmed. Footnotes
Footnote 1 In the Pinder Case, supra, the court said: 'Though the question is not in express terms provided for in the statute above cited' (McClellan's Digest, sec. 10, p. 446) 'yet it was a pertinent, and, as we think, proper, question to test fully the existence of bias or prejudice in the minds of the jurors. It sought to elicit a fact that was of the most vital import to the defendant; and a fact, too, that, if existent, was locked up entirely within the breasts of the jurors to whom the question was propounded, a knowledge of the existence of which could only be acquired by interrogating the juror himself. The answer to it, if in the affirmative, could have worked no harm to the juror, or to any one else, but would have done credit to the humanity and intelligence of the juror, and would have satisfactorily exhibited to the court and to the defendant his entire competency, so far as the element of bias or prejudice was involved. But, if the answer to it from the jurors had been in the negative, then we have no hesitancy in saying that it would have shown them to be wholly unfit and incompetent to sit upon the trial of a man of the negro race, whose right to a trial by a fair and impartial jury is as fully guarantied to him under our constitution and laws as to the whitest man in Christendm; a nd such incompetency asserts itself with superadded force in such a case as this, where the life or death of the defendant was the issue to tip the scale in the jury's hands for adjustment.'
Footnote 2 In that case, the court said (at page 340 of 64 N. C.): 'It is essential to the purity of trial by jury, that every juror shall be free from bias. If his mind has been poisoned by prejudice of any kind, whether resulting from reason or passion, he is unfit to sit on a jury. Here, his Honor refused to allow a proper question to be put to the juror, in order to test his qualifications. Suppose the question had been allowed, and the juror had answered, that the state of his feelings towards the colored race was such that he could not show equal and impartial justice between the state and the prisoner, especially in charges of this character, it is at once seen that he would have been grossly unfit to sit in the jury box.' The practice of permitting questions as to racial prejudice is not confined to any section of the country, and this fact attests the widespread sentiment that fairness demands that such inquiries be allowed. Thus, in New York, on the trial of a negro for the murder of his wife, who was white, a talesman, who had testified to a disqualifying prejudice, was excluded by the court on its own motion, and the Court of Appeals held that the exclusion was not error, although in the absence of a challenge to the talesman by either party. People v. Decker, 157 N. Y. 186, 190, 51 N. E. 1018. See, also, State v. Brown, 188 Mo. 451, 459, 460, 87 S. W. 519.
Footnote 3 The court in that case said (at page 349 of 5 Cal.): 'As the juror best knows the condition of his own mind, no satisfactory conclusion can be arrived at, without resort to himself. Applying this test then, how is it possible to ascertain whether he is prejudiced or not, unless questions similar to the foregoing are propounded to him? ...'Prejudice being a state of mind more frequently founded in passion than in reason, may exist with or without cause; and to ask a person whether he is prejudiced or not against a party, and (if the answer is affirmative), whether that prejudice is of such a character as would lead him to deny the party a fair trial, is not only the simplest method of ascertaining the state of his mind, but is, probably, the only sure method of fathoming his thoughts and feelings. If the person called had not taken an obligation which would prejudice him against foreigners in such a manner as to imperil their rights in a court of law, he could say so, and the question and answer would be harmless. If, upon the other hand, he had taken oaths, and was under obligations which influenced his mind and feelings in such a manner as to deny to a foreigner an impartial trial, he is grossly unfit to sit as a juror, and such facts should be known.'
Footnote 4 For an illustration of a case where the suggestion of bias was held to be too remote, e. g., as to political affiliations, see Connors v. United States, 158 U.S. 408, 15 S. Ct. 951.
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