XIII MOTION TO PRECLUDE THE COMMONWEALTH FROM SEEKING THE DEATH PENALTY AS DEPRIVING CUADRA OF AN IMPARTIAL JURY
78. Cuadra incorporates herein by reference and makes a part hereof Paragraphs one (1) through seventy-seven (77), above, inclusive, as if the same were fully set forth at length herein.
79. As a result of the Commonwealth seeking the death penalty, the Defendant, Harlow Cuadra, will be tried by a jury, which has gone through the “death qualification” process.
80. There exists substantial social science data that the “death qualification” process results in the empaneling of jurors less likely to consider mitigation evidence in the penalty phase than jurors who would not meet the death qualification criterion.
81. That there exists substantial social science data the death qualified jurors as a result of the jury selection process are predisposed toward the prosecution, toward a finding of guilt and toward the imposition of the death penalty.
82. Cuadra believes, and therefore avers that a ‘death qualified jury”, and the process by which said jury is empaneled, violates his right to a fair and impartial trial by jury as guaranteed by Article I, Section6, 9 and 13 of the Pennsylvania Constitution and the Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution of the United States.
WHEREFORE, the Defendant, Harlow Cuadra, moves this Honorable Court to preclude the Commonwealth from pursuing the death penalty as violative of his right to due process of law and his right to a fair trial.
78. Cuadra incorporates herein by reference and makes a part hereof Paragraphs one (1) through seventy-seven (77), above, inclusive, as if the same were fully set forth at length herein.
79. As a result of the Commonwealth seeking the death penalty, the Defendant, Harlow Cuadra, will be tried by a jury, which has gone through the “death qualification” process.
80. There exists substantial social science data that the “death qualification” process results in the empaneling of jurors less likely to consider mitigation evidence in the penalty phase than jurors who would not meet the death qualification criterion.
81. That there exists substantial social science data the death qualified jurors as a result of the jury selection process are predisposed toward the prosecution, toward a finding of guilt and toward the imposition of the death penalty.
82. Cuadra believes, and therefore avers that a ‘death qualified jury”, and the process by which said jury is empaneled, violates his right to a fair and impartial trial by jury as guaranteed by Article I, Section6, 9 and 13 of the Pennsylvania Constitution and the Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution of the United States.
WHEREFORE, the Defendant, Harlow Cuadra, moves this Honorable Court to preclude the Commonwealth from pursuing the death penalty as violative of his right to due process of law and his right to a fair trial.
