Adams

Steve Vance Adams was convicted by a jury of two counts of selling restricted dangerous drugs and one count of furnishing marijuana. He appeals from the judgment entered on the verdicts and urges two points for reversal. He challenges the jury selection procedure in Tulare County in criminal cases, which calls for all interrogation of veniremen on voir dire to be by the judge. Secondly, he claims that the evidence supports his defense of entrapment as a matter of law. We have determined that the latter point has no merit; and with respect to the jury selection procedure, we are of the opinion that it was error to deny defense counsel the opportunity to question the prospective jurors directly on voir dire, but have concluded that the error under the facts of this case was not prejudicial and does not warrant a reversal.

The trial judge, following a procedure which concededly had been adopted in Tulare County, conducted the entire voir dire examination and restricted counsel to submitting to the court any questions they may have desired to ask of the veniremen. No1 questions were submitted to the court by counsel in this instance. Had questions been submitted, the court,…