§ 16-33-304 - Challenge to trial jurors -- Individual juror for cause.
16-33-304. Challenge to trial jurors -- Individual juror for cause.
(a) The challenge for cause may be taken either by the state or by the defendant.
(b) It may be general, that the juror is disqualified in serving in any case, or particular, that he is disqualified from serving in the case on trial.
(1) Causes of general challenge are:
(A) A want of the qualifications prescribed by law;
(B) A conviction for a felony;
(C) Unsoundness of mind, or such defect in the faculties of the mind, or organs of the body, as renders him incapable of properly performing the duties of a juror.
(2) Particular causes of challenge are actual and implied bias.
(A) Actual bias is the existence of such a state of mind on the part of the juror, in regard to the case or to either party, as satisfies the court, in the exercise of a sound discretion, that he cannot try the case impartially and without prejudice to the substantial rights of the party challenging.
(B) A challenge for implied bias may be taken in the case of the juror:
(i) Being related by consanguinity, or affinity, or who stands in the relation of guardian and ward, attorney and client, master and servant, landlord and tenant, employer and employed on wages, or who is a member of the family of the defendant or of the person alleged to be injured by the offense charged, or on whose complaint the prosecution was instituted;
(ii) Being adverse to the defendant in a civil suit, or having complained against or being accused by him in a criminal prosecution;
(iii) Having served on the grand jury that found the indictment or on the coroner's jury that inquired into the death of the party, whose death is the subject of the indictment;
(iv) Having served on a trial jury which has tried another person for the offense charged in the indictment;
(v) Having been one of the former jury sworn to try the same indictment and whose verdict was set aside, or who were discharged without a verdict;
(vi) Having served as a juror in a civil action brought against the defendant for the act charged in the indictment;
(vii) When the offense is punishable with death, the entertaining of such conscientious opinions as would preclude him from finding the defendant guilty.
(c) An exemption from serving on a jury is not a cause of challenge. Having formed or expressed an opinion merely from rumor shall not be a cause of challenge.