United States v. Edward Rucker

WIDENER, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Edward Rucker was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the stabbing death of a fellow inmate at Virginia’s Lorton Reformatory, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1112. The dispositive issue in his appeal is whether the trial judge committed reversible error in refusing to question individually on voir dire two prospective jurors whose answers to jury qualification questionnaires left open to question their physical or mental capacities to render effective jury service. Rucker used two of his ten peremptory challenges, all of which were ultimately exercised, to…