Strickland v. State

I join Judge Neal’s challenge to the majority’s decision to affirm in the face of the longstanding legal principle in Arkansas that jurors are presumed to be unbiased unless shown to be biased by the party challenging the juror. See Fleming v. State, 284 Ark. 307, 681 S.W.2d 390 (1984); Blann v. State, 15 Ark. App. 364, 695 S.W.2d 382 (1985). However, I write separately to express my additional concerns that today’s holding unnecessarily restricts our standard of review regarding juror challenges and permits sworn jurors to be removed outside the time permitted by Section- 16-33-303(b) (1987)…