State v. Love

¶1 This case is another opportunity to clarify our evolving jurisprudence on open courts. Today we decide if a particular method of challenging jurors after voir dire — a method commonly employed in trial courts around the state — violates the constitutional right to a public trial. At the conclusion of voir dire questioning, counsel exercised for cause challenges orally at the bench and subsequently exercised peremptory challenges silently by exchanging a list of jurors and alternatively striking names from it. All of voir dire, including the juror challenges, occurred in open court, on the…