Lawyers can ask a judge to reject potential jurors who are biased or incapable of following the law. They can also toss a certain number of unbiased jurors for almost no reason at all…as long as it’s not an improper reason. By Janet Portman, Attorney Updated: Jul 27th, 2017 Criminal defendants are entitled to a jury of their peers.
To that end, lawyers and the judge question each would-be juror, looking for evidence of impermissible bias. When such bias is uncovered, the individual will be excused “for cause,” which means that the lawyer making the challenge can articulate to the judge an acceptable reason for rejecting that person.
Permissible Reasons for Rejecting Jurors in Criminal Trials. Lawyers can ask a judge to reject potential jurors who are biased or incapable of following the law. They can also toss a certain number of unbiased jurors for almost no reason at all…as long as it’s not an improper reason.
Personal experiences that might affect the person’s ability to judge the case. While a venireperson’s experience with the subject matter of the case might make that person an informed juror, it might also make him a biased one.
Open and receptive jurors, according to the Synchronics Group Trial Consultants, will have hair that is “casual and naturally flowing, rather than highly styled or gelled or plastered to the head … Beards and mustaches will be natural looking, rather than designed and sculpted.”
A peremptory challenge results in the exclusion of a potential juror without the need for any reason or explanation - unless the opposing party presents a prima facie argument that this challenge was used to discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, or sex. See Batson challenge.
You can only be excused from jury duty for: Undue hardship. Dependent care. Student Status. Military conflict.
Though you may worry about taking time away from work or being away from your kids, you can get out of jury duty. Physical and mental disabilities, family issues and personal opinions are some of the reasons people are excused from jury duty.
peremptory - Each side in a case has a certain number of challenges that can be used without giving a reason. These are called "peremptory" challenges. Each side may ask the judge to excuse particular jurors.
Common Effective Jury Duty ExcusesExtreme Financial Hardship. ... Full-Time Student Status. ... Surgery/Medical Reasons. ... Being Elderly. ... Being Too Opinionated. ... Mental/Emotional Instability. ... Relation to the Case/Conflict of Interest. ... Line of Work.More items...•
Tips for writing a jury duty excuse letterFirst of all, think of your excuse for skipping jury duty. ... Take note of the exemption rules. ... Check if you need to follow a template for the letter. ... If you're good at writing letters, you may also use your own format. ... Before ending your letter, include all your contact details.More items...
Peremptory challenges allow the accused to reject potential jurors who they perceive to be implicitly or explicitly biased, particularly with respect to the accused's race, and to try to keep jurors who share the same background as the accused through the exclusion of other jurors.
Jurors are presumed by their oaths to be impartial judges. However, where the potential bias is clear and obvious, or where it can be shown that there is a reason to suspect that members of a jury may possess bias that cannot be set aside, then the jury can be screened by a challenge for cause.
You have to carry out your jury service, even if you're self-employed and it means turning down work. Fortunately, you can claim back some of your lost earnings by providing proof of income. You can show evidence of this using several methods, such as: Last year's Self Assessment tax return.
An impartial jury is a jury that will consider a case fairly, without favoring or discriminating against anyone. The jury must be willing to look at the evidence open-mindedly. An impartial jury does not immediately assume guilt or innocence. They want to see the evidence and hear the arguments first.
A “hung jury,” also known as a “deadlocked jury,” is a jury whose members are unable to agree on a verdict by the required voting margin after extensive deliberations, resulting in a mistrial.
Challenging jurors Once you and the other selected jurors are in the jury box, the juror numbers are called a second time. Both the prosecutor and the defence counsel can challenge (reject) a juror without giving reasons. They are each allowed a maximum of three challenges.
The crowd of people who show up at the courthouse with jury summons in hand are known as “venirepersons, ” which means that they are potential jurors (the group is called “the venire").
Although lawyers don’t have to give a reason for using a peremptory, they may not use them in order to rid the jury of people of a certain race, religion, gender, or other protected status. If a pattern begins to emerge—the prosecutor excuses every Black juror but no White members—the judge will intervene.
Convinced that the juror would not be fair , the defense attorney uses one of his peremptories to excuse her. Another theory for the use of peremptories is that by letting each side dispense with the most unacceptable members of the jury, it results in a more middle-of-the road jury, one not subject to extreme views.
When such bias is uncovered, the individual will be excused “for cause,” which means that the lawyer making the challenge can articulate to the judge an acceptable reason for rejecting that person. This article explains the common “for ...
A venireperson who states that he would naturally believe a police officer’s account simply because it comes from a police officer is predisposed towards one side from the beginning. This person will be excused for cause.
Venirepersons will be excused if they indicate that they will not convict in view of the sentence that might result. Such sentiments surface in drug use cases, for example, where some people feel quite strongly that personal use of illegal drugs should result in treatment, not incarceration.
Personal experiences that might affect the person’s ability to judge the case. While a venireperson’s experience with the subject matter of the case might make that person an informed juror, it might also make him a biased one. For instance, someone who has himself been the victim of a similar crime might be prone to project his trauma onto ...
According to the Synchronics Group Trial Consultants, a “nurturing, open, receptive and generous person” will likely wear casual shoes “with plenty of room for the toes, because these people don't want to be hemmed in . No pointy tips. The heels will be low, because open people want to be able to move around easily.
For example, “if it’s a medical malpractice case and there’s a woman and all of her friends are nurses, that might bias her a little bit,” says Matthew Ferrara, Ph.D, a trial consultant and forensic psychologist. And if you have friends or family in law enforcement, that’s a big red flag. “In a criminal case, relationship to someone in law enforcement is paramount,” Ferrara says. “People who are probation officers, police officers, jailers or are related to the same type of profession would be probably viewed as biased toward the prosecution.”
One common question presented to jurors is, “Are there any religious beliefs that prevent you from passing judgment on another person?” Frederick says this is to weed out people whose faith might impede their ability to view a case objectively .
YOUR BODY LANGUAGE. Non-verbal behavior can say a lot about what you’re thinking. “We’re not mind readers,” says Frederick, “but you can see behaviors indicating they are really not receptive to you at all, or they’re very receptive to you, and you pay attention to that.”.
The plaintiff attorney or prosecutor will generally look for people more inclined to trust authority.
Indeed, research shows that if you don’t vibe well with an attorney, you’re more likely to decide against their argument. “One attorney told me, 'If I can tell they don’t like me, I get rid of them,’” King says.
But there are a few general traits attorneys take into consideration when trying to decide whether you’d help or hurt their argument. Attorneys don’t get to pick their jurors.