Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Supreme Court of Maryland Approves New Program to Expand Voir Dire Process in Maryland Courts.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court of Maryland approved the recommendation of the Maryland Judiciary's Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (the “Rules Committee”) to adopt a provisional program that will allow attorneys to utilize more strategic tactics during jury selection and assemble jury panels in a way that, previously, Maryland courts have not allowed.

Currently, the vast majority of state courts, as well as all federal courts, make it mandatory for trial judges to ask voir dire questions proposed by parties if the questions will lead to “the intelligent exercise of peremptory challenges.” Under this approach, parties are allowed to ask probing questions during the voir dire process to help the parties make a more informed decision about whether to strike a prospective juror.

Maryland, by contrast, has employed a “limited” voir dire process which provides the parties with limited information about the potential jurors and relies heavily on prospective jurors’ ability to assess their own biases. As the Supreme Court of Maryland has explained, in Maryland, “‘the sole purpose of voir dire is to ensure a fair and impartial jury by determining the existence of cause for disqualification, and not as in many other states, to include the intelligent exercise of peremptory challenges.’”  Collins v. State, 452 Md. 614, 622, 158 A.3d 553, 558 (2017) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).  Unless a proposed voir dire question is directed at a specific cause for juror disqualification—meaning, the question is “reasonably likely” to uncover either prospective juror's (1) failure to meet minimum statutory qualifications (e.g., age, felony convictions, etc.) or (2) inability to be impartial—then a trial judge in Maryland is not required to ask the proposed question during voir dire. Kazadi v. State, 467 Md. 1, 44-45, 223 A.3d 554 (2020) (cleaned up); Pearson v. State, 437 Md. 350, 357, 86 A.3d 1232, 1235-36 (2014) (cleaned up). Put another way, trial judges in Maryland are routinely allowed to reject proposed voir dire questions when such questions are designed to probe and “fish” for information that will help the parties develop a basis to disqualify a juror.

The newly approved pilot program follows the majority approach to voir dire and will allow parties to “use the examination of a prospective juror to obtain information that may provide guidance for the informed exercise of peremptory challenges” in both civil and criminal cases. Although the Rules Committee has recommended that trial judges will still retain “supervision and control” of the voir dire process, the program will allow attorneys to propose broader voir dire questions that, historically, have been rejected by Maryland courts—questions designed to probe for information that may ultimately aid in the informed “exercise of peremptory challenges” of potential jurors. Pearson, 437 Md. at 357, 86 A.3d at 1235-36.

This pilot program comes shortly after the 2024 Maryland General Assembly raised concerns about Maryland's voir dire process, nearly taking control of the issue after the Senate voted to codify changes to the voir dire process. On April 11, 2024, following the state legislature's attempt to modify the voir dire process, Chief Justice Fader requested that the Rules Committee—the body that was specially created to help Maryland's highest Court in the exercise of its rulemaking authority—expeditiously explore and recommend changes to the voir dire rules. Consequently, the Rules Committee held meetings in May and June 2024, allowing comment from advocates in favor of the majority approach to voir dire and those in favor of Maryland's “limited” voir dire.  Ultimately, in June 2024, the Rules Committee voted to expand the voir dire process on an experimental basis, and, in September 2024, the Supreme Court of Maryland approved the committee's recommendation.

Currently, the Rules Committee has not published the full scope or parameters of the pilot program. However, according to Chief Justice Fader, the program will cover a “representative sample of circuit courts across the state” and is expected to last until the end of 2025. Only time will tell whether or not the program will be adopted on a permanent basis and/or applied statewide, bringing Maryland into alignment with the vast majority of other states, as well as the federal courts.

 - Audreina Blanding, Associate


Link to Article: https://thedailyrecord.com/2024/09/13/md-supreme-court-approves-pilot-to-expand-lawyers-role-in-voir-dire/

 

Link to June 2024 Rules Committee Meeting: https://www.mdcourts.gov/sites/default/files/import/rules/agenda/agenda.pdf

 

2024 Maryland General Assembly Bills

·         Senate Bill 827 (Policy Note): https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2024RS/fnotes/bil_0007/sb0827.pdf

·         House Bill 1079 (Policy Note): https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2024RS/fnotes/bil_0009/hb1079.pdf

 

Other Articles

·         https://www.msba.org/site/site/content/News-and-Publications/News/General-News/Maryland-Rules-Committee-Recommends-Jury-Examination-Expansion.aspx#:~:text=Following%20Chief%20Justice%20Fader's%20April,discuss%20additional%20methods%20of%20identifying