This petition involves questions of exceptional importance for jury selection in trials in all jurisdictions across our nation, involving the process for seating a jury to assure every defendant his or her Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial by a fair and impartial jury, as follows:

1. Is a defendant's right to a fair trial denied when every single juror seated on his jury is permitted to remain silent rather than answer important questions asked of them during jury selection?

2. Is a defendant in a criminal trial denied a fair and impartial jury when all of the jurors who were selected and seated on the jury had been asked several important questions calling for a "yes or no" answer and none of these jurors answered a single one of these important questions?

3. If every prosecutive juror within the jury venire is asked 32 questions and not a single prospective juror gives any verbal answer to any of these questions, including questions that call for a yes or no answer - even when the question includes phrases that call for a verbal answer such as, "Does everyone understand that principle?"; "Do you all understand that?"; "Do you think you could be fair and impartial?"; "Will all of you agree to apply the same standards for judging credibility. . . ?"; "Do you agree to abide by those instructions?"; and "If you were on trial, would you be willing to be tried by a jury with someone who has the same frame of mind as yours?" ; (1) can it be said that defendant was able to effectively use his preemptory challenges?; and (2) can the defendant be assured that his guilt or innocence is being decided by a fair and impartial jury?

4. Did the judge deny the petitioner a fair trial when she improperly allowed all of the prospective jurors to choose not to answer questions that called for a specific answer, when she gave them the option to not answer any of the questions by deferring to the prospective jurors' preferences when stating, "if you . . . want to respond to … any of these questions, I ask that you raise your hand"?

Defendant's right to a fair trial by impartial jury