VOIR DIRE. A preliminary examination of a witness to ascertain whether he is com petent.
When a witness was supposed to have an interest in the cause, and was thereby ex cluded from testifying, the party against whom he was called had the choice to prove such interest by calling another witness to that fact, or he might require the witness produced to be sworn on his voir dire as to whether he had an interest in the cause or not; but the party against whom he was called was not allowed to have recourse to both methods to prove the witness's interest; If the witness answered that he had no in terest, he was competent, his oath being con clusive; if he swore he had an interest, he was rejected.
The witness was sworn on his voir dire to ascertain whether he had an interest which would disqualify him, because he would be tempted to perjure himself if he testified when interested. But when he was asked whether be had such an interest, if he was dishonest and anxious to be sworn in the case, he would swear falsely he had none, and his answer being conclusive, he was ad mitted as competent ; if, on the contrary, he swore truly he had an interest, when be knew that would exclude him, he was told that for being thus honest he must be rejected.
A suitable inquiry is permissible in order to ascertain whether a juror has any bias, and this must be conducted under the super vision of the court and be largely left to its sound discretion. There is no objection in not allowing a juror to be asked as to his political affiliations and whether they would bias his judgment, in the absence of any statement tending to show a special reason for asking ; Connors v. U. S., 158 U. S. 408, 15 Sup. Ct. 951, 39 L. Ed. 1033 ; a juror may be asked whether be is a member of certain secret societies ; Burgess v. Mfg. Co. (Tex.) 30 S. W. 1110; or has ever belonged to "the committee of 100"; Connors v. U. S., 158 U. S. 408, 15 Sup. Ct. 951, 39 L. Ed. 1033. The court may assume an exclusive examination of jurors, though it is the better practice to counsel to examine ; Jones v. State, 35 Fla. 289, 17 South. 284.
See INTEREST ; JURY.