The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case over whether a Philadelphia trial judge committed more than harmless error when she misapplied Pennsylvania criminal voir dire procedure by requiring a man to use peremptory challenges before exhausting his challenges for cause.

A divided Superior Court panel said the trial judge had misapplied the law, but, over dissent, concluded the error was harmless, leaving Harold W. Noel Jr.’s robbery conviction undisturbed.