Death penalty cases are rare everywhere, including Bucks County. But they certainly exist.
The right to a jury which has the ability to render a verdict according to the evidence despite the penalty which may be imposed extends to each party in a first degree murder case, whether or not the death penalty is sought. A sentence of death is unlawful and cannot be carried out if the jury that imposed or recommended it was chosen by excluding veniremen (jurors) for cause simply because they voiced general objections to the death penalty or expressed conscientious or religious scruples against its infliction.
Only prospective jurors who are irrevocably committed, before the trial has begun, to vote against the penalty of death regardless of the facts and circumstances that might emerge in the case can be struck for cause. Although it is clear that a conviction by an otherwise death-qualified jury will be reversed if the defendant an prove that the jury was prone to favor the prosecution in the determination of guilt, such a showing has yet to be made in a Pennsylvania or Bucks County court by a Bucks County criminal lawyer. There is no constitutional requirement that each juror be "life-qualified." Thus, while "life qualifying" questions are permitted, they are not required, and the absence of such questions alone does not implicate error by the trial court. Similarly, the mere fact that counsel may not have asked the specific question as to whether a prospective juror would vote for a life sentence in the right case, does not necessarily mean that counsel was ineffective, especially if the jurors indicated that they will follow the law as instructed by the judge and that they would be fair and impartial. Nor does it constitute ineffective assistance of counsel to fail to ask prospective jurors if they would automatically impose the death penalty.
Nevertheless, a trial court may not refuse to allow all prospective jurors to be asked whether they would automatically impose the death penalty for first degree murder. A defendant's death sentence was vacated when the court did not permit counsel to individually question all prospective jurors regarding the death penalty, notwithstanding whether they responded affirmatively to the life qualifying questions posed by the court during general voir dire.