Wednesday, April 21, 2004

No error where government waives peremptories to ensure enough in panel to pick jury

In U.S. v. Stanley, the Fourth Circuit in a per curiam opinion for the panel of Judges Wilkinson, Michael, and King affirmed the verdict in a case tried before Judge Jones, where the issues raised on appeal included the defendant's claim that the jury was not properly seated, since the strikes for cause whittled down the jury pool to 25, and the government waived three of its peremptory strikes so that the defendant could have 10 of his peremptories and a jury of 12 could still be had.

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