Adrian Durden v. State of Indiana

Criminal defendants enjoy a constitutional right to an impartial jury. U.S. Const. amend. VI ; Ind. Const. Art. 1, § 13. This right "is a structural guarantee," Carella v. California , 491 U.S. 263 , 268, 109 S.Ct. 2419 , 105 L.Ed.2d 218 (1989) (Scalia, J., concurring), and its "infraction can never be treated as harmless error." Gray v. Mississippi , 481 U.S. 648 , 668, 107 S.Ct. 2045 , 95 L.Ed.2d 622 (1987) (internal quotation marks omitted). But is reversal necessary when the violation resulted directly from the defendant's affirmative actions at trial?

In this case, defense counsel…