State v. Griffin

The majority today holds, for the first time under our state constitution, that the state may death qualify the jury that decides the guilt of the defendant in a capital case by allowing the court to excuse for cause those persons who, because of their opposition to the death penalty, are incapable of voting for it.1 The death qualified jury is “tilted in favor of the *717prosecution by the exclusion of a group of prospective jurors [who are] uncommonly aware of an accused’s constitutional rights but quite capable of determining his culpability without favor or bias.”2 Lockhart v. McCree, 476…