Summary
In Eccles v. Commonwealth, 212 Va. 679, 187 S.E.2d 207 (1972), the Commonwealth confessed error to the action of the trial court in refusing a criminal defendant access to the jury list to determine if there had been a compliance with required selection procedures.
Summary of this case from Archer and Johnson v. MayesOpinion
42659 Record No. 7888.
March 6, 1972
Present, Snead, C.J., Carrico, Gordon, Harrison, Cochran and Harman, JJ.
Criminal Procedure — Jury Selection — Access to Master List.
Attorney General concedes that trial court erred in refusing to give defendant access to master jury list for purpose of determining whether jury selection procedures were followed.
Error to a judgment of the Corporation Court of the City of Charlottesville. Hon. George M. Coles, judge presiding.
Reversed and remanded.
John C. Lowe; F. Guthrie Gordon, III; Lowe and Gordon, on petition for plaintiff in error.
J. T. Camblos, Commonwealth's Attorney for the City of Charlottesville; Andrew P. Miller, Attorney General; Reno S. Harp, III, Assistant Attorney General, on brief in opposition and motion for defendant in error.
John Eccles was tried by a jury in the Corporation Court of the City of Charlottesville and found guilty of selling marijuana. By judgment order entered on the verdict on February 5, 1971, he was fined $500 and sentenced to confinement in the State Penitentiary for three years. We granted a writ of error to the judgment order limited to two assignments of error, one relating to denial of access to the master jury list and the other relating to admissibility of evidence.
Eccles contends that the trial court erred in refusing to give him access to the master jury list for the purpose of determining whether the jury selection procedures required by law and by the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Virginia were complied with in selecting a jury to try him.
The Attorney General has conceded that the trial court erred in this respect and has consented that the judgment of the trial court be reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial if the Commonwealth be so advised. Accordingly, without passing on the assignment of error challenging the admissibility of evidence, we hold that the trial court committed reversible error in denying Eccles access to the master jury list from which his venire was selected and we remand the case for a new trial if the Commonwealth be so advised.
Reversed and remanded.