The People, Plaintiff and Respondent v. Daniel Lee Whalen, Defendant and Appellant — Liu, J., Concurring

Summary

Justice Liu concurred in the judgment while criticizing the trial court for treating ambiguous pro-death-penalty and anti-death-penalty jurors differently during death-qualification voir dire. She concluded that the disparate questioning violated the obligation to conduct voir dire evenhandedly, but did not warrant reversal because the record did not show a biased jury or a fundamentally unfair trial, and the defense did not object to the excusal at issue. She also agreed that the trial court’s use of leading questions was within its discretion, while cautioning against relying on them instead of open-ended questioning.