During voir dire at appellants trial for aiding and abetting a robbery, the court instructed jurors that if they harbored racial bias against appellant, who was African-American, they should lie about it and make up another reason to be excused from jury service. Although Respondent conceded the trial courts error, they asserted that the error was harmless. The appellate court here reversed. Although the judges motive was only to exclude those with racial bias from the jury, his method was serious error which undermined appellants ability to secure a fair and impartial jury.
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