Turner v. Murray

In Turner v. Murray, 476 U.S. 28, 36 n.9, 106 S. Ct. 1683, 90 L. Ed. 2d 27 (1986), the defendant was an African-American male charged with capital murder for shooting the Caucasian proprietor of a jewelry store. The trial court precluded the defendant from asking questions of prospective jurors concerning their possible racial prejudice. The jury convicted the defendant and sentenced him to death. The Supreme Court vacated the death sentence, holding that, upon defendant's request, "a capital defendant accused of an interracial crime is entitled to have prospective jurors informed of the race of the victim and questioned on the issue of racial bias." In that case, the Court announced guidelines for determining whether questioning of jurors on race is mandatory. "'The broad inquiry in each case must be . . . whether under all of the circumstances presented there was a constitutionally significant likelihood that, absent questioning about racial prejudice, the jurors would not be as indifferent as they stand unsworne.'" Id. at 33. However, the Court did not reverse the defendant's conviction and found that, with respect to the guilt phase of the trial, the principles previously articulated in Ristaino v. Ross (1976) should continue to be followed. Id. at 37-38. But the Court did reverse on the penalty phase. In Turner, the United States Supreme Court held that a capital murder defendant "accused of an interracial crime is entitled to have prospective jurors informed of the race of the victim and questioned on the issue of racial bias." Turner, 476 U.S. at 36-37. In a footnote, though, the Court addressed Justice Powell's contention that questioning prospective jurors about their racial prejudice "in the absence of circumstances that make clear a need for it could well have the negative effect of suggesting to the jurors that race somehow is relevant to the case." Id. at 37 n.10. The Court, in response, stated: Whether such a concern is purely chimerical or not is a decision we leave up to a capital defendant's counsel. Should defendant's counsel decline to request voir dire on the subject of racial prejudice, we in no way require or suggest that the judge broach the topic sua sponte. Id.