223.
(a) To select a fair and impartial jury in a criminal jury trial, the trial judge In a criminal case, the court shall conduct an initial examination of prospective jurors. At the first practical opportunity prior to voir dire, the trial judge shall consider the form and subject matter of voir dire questions. Before voir dire by the trial judge, the parties may submit questions to the trial judge. The trial judge may include The court may submit to the prospective jurors additional questions requested by the parties as the trial judge it deems proper.(b) The court shall provide to counsel for each party the complete names of the prospective jurors, both alphabetically and in the order in which they will be called. However, the court, in each criminal trial, shall determine a uniform manner by which each prospective juror shall be addressed by the court and counsel for each party, according to one of the following:
(1) An identification number assigned by the court.
(2) The prospective juror’s first name and the first initial of his or her last name.
(3) The prospective juror’s title and last name.
(c) Before examining prospective jurors, the court shall advise them that, in accordance with state law, the court and counsel for each party are prohibited, in all criminal cases, from addressing prospective jurors by their full names during jury selection, and are required to address each prospective juror by an identification number, by his or her first name and the first initial of his or her last name, or by his or her title and last name.
(b) (d) (1) Upon completion of the trial judge’s court’s initial examination, counsel for each party shall have the right to examine, by oral and direct questioning, any or all of the prospective jurors. The scope of the examination conducted by counsel shall be within reasonable limits prescribed by the trial judge in the judge’s sound discretion subject to the provisions of this chapter. During any examination conducted by counsel for the parties, the trial judge shall permit liberal and probing examination calculated to discover bias or prejudice with regard to the circumstances of the particular case or the parties before the court. The fact that a topic has been included in the trial judge’s examination shall not preclude appropriate followup questioning in the same area court may, in the exercise of its discretion, limit the oral and direct questioning of prospective jurors by counsel. The trial judge should permit counsel to conduct voir dire examination without requiring prior submission of the questions unless a particular counsel engages in improper questioning. court may specify the maximum amount of time that counsel for each party may question an individual juror, or may specify an aggregate amount of time for each party, which can then be allocated among the prospective jurors by counsel.
(2) The trial judge shall not impose specific unreasonable or arbitrary time limits or establish an inflexible time limit policy for voir dire. As voir dire proceeds, the trial judge shall permit supplemental time for questioning based on individual responses or conduct of jurors that may evince attitudes inconsistent with suitability to serve as a fair and impartial juror in the particular case.
(3) For purposes of this section, an “improper question” is any question that, as its dominant purpose, attempts to precondition the prospective jurors to a particular result or indoctrinate the jury.
(c) In exercising the judge’s sound discretion, the trial judge shall consider all of the following:
(1) The amount of time requested by trial counsel.
(2) Any unique or complex legal or factual elements in the case.
(3) The length of the trial.
(4) The number of parties.
(5) The number of witnesses.
(d) (e) Voir dire of any prospective jurors shall, where practicable, take place occur in the presence of the other jurors in all criminal cases, including death penalty cases. Examination of prospective jurors shall be conducted only in aid of the exercise of challenges for cause.
(e) The trial judge shall, in his or her sound discretion, consider reasonable written questionnaires when requested by counsel. If a questionnaire is utilized, the parties shall be given reasonable time to evaluate the responses to the questionnaires before oral questioning commences.
(f) To help facilitate the jury selection process, at the earliest practical time, the trial judge in a criminal trial shall provide the parties with the list of prospective jurors in the order in which they will be called.
(g) (f) The trial judge’s court’s exercise of its discretion in the manner in which voir dire is conducted, including any limitation on the time that which will be allowed for direct questioning of prospective jurors by counsel and any determination that a question is not in aid of the exercise of challenges for cause, is shall not cause for a any conviction to be reversed, reversed unless the exercise of that discretion results has resulted in a miscarriage of justice, as specified in Section 13 of Article VI of the California Constitution.
(g) This section does not limit public access to juror information, as provided for under Section 237.
(h) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2022, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2022, deletes or extends that date.