Little v. Commonwealth

It is shocking to me that a juror who had suffered the agony of having a husband, mother, and sister killed by drunk drivers in two separate tragedies was not struck for cause from serving on this drunk-driving case. Consequently, the *251Appellant was deprived of a peremptory strike. Therefore, I must respectfully dissent.

In the landmark case of Shane, we recognized that when a trial judge fails to properly excuse a juror for cause, the criminal defendant must use one of the allotted peremptory strikes. In essence, such a failure of the trial court deprives the criminal defendant of a level…