Can a judge interfere with the conduct of jury selection at a criminal trial?

Jury selection is for the parties, not the court. And, of course, particular care must be taken during jury selection in criminal proceedings to assure that judicial involvement does not intrude upon the defendant's "constitutional right to a trial by a particular jury chosen according to law, in whose selection [the defendant] has had a voice" ( People v. Buford, 69 N.Y.2d 290, 297-298, 514 N.Y.S.2d 191, 506 N.E.2d 901 [1987] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted] ). While jury selection is underway, the parties, subject only to the procedural limitations imposed by statute, are accorded nearly plenary control over the jury's constitution. It is their prerogative to determine through the exercise of peremptory and for cause challenges who among the venire will and will not judge their case. The role of the judge respecting the parties' selections is, prior to the trial's commencement, commensurately circumscribed precisely as set forth in CPL 270.15(3); he or she may not interfere with the parties' choices unless it is manifest that an agreed-upon and sworn juror is unable to serve by reason of illness or other incapacity.