State v. Avery

General Statute 15A-2000 contemplates a bifurcated trial procedure wherein the jury’s determination of a defendant’s guilt or innocence in a capital case is separate.and independent from its later imposition of punishment should guilt be found. Under these circumstances, to permit the state to challenge an unlimited number of veniremen at the guilt phase of the trial for no “cause” other than that they would refuse to consider capital punishment at the sentencing phase works a systematic exclusion from jury service of that class of persons whose opposition to the death penalty precludes their…