THE SURPRIZING TRUTH ABOUT HOW JURIES ARE REALLY FORMED

You might have an idea that when you have a jury trial you get to pick who you want to be on the jury. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jury selection should actually be called jury D selection. In this blog I'll tell you why that is and provide you with a short explanation of how a jury is actually selected in the real world.

I'm Andrew Williams. I'm board certified in criminal law and I've been practicing for over 30 years.  I share my years of experience with you to give you a better understanding of the law and maybe use it to your benefit.  I provide you with General legal information but the law varies from one jurisdiction to another. From one state to another.  Therefore if you do have a legal problem you should always make sure to consult an attorney in your area to advise you about the facts and circumstances of your particular case.

Jury Deselection Process

What is jury selection? I call the process jury deselection because you don't get to select who you want on the jury panel of your trial. You have to try and get rid of the jurors that you absolutely don't want to be on there. You have to get rid of the jurors that are biased against you or maybe have preconceived opinions or ideas about the case or you just feel like they simply can't be fair.  You won't have a whole lot of time to do this so you got to ask relevant questions right off the bat.  Here's how the process generally works in the real world.

Calling a Jury Panel

Voter registration rules provide most of the juror lists that are used to get jury panels together for jury trials or a failing jury trial. You're going to get 50 or 60 people brought into the courtroom and about half of that for a misdemeanor trial. This group of people is known as the jury panel. Then from that large panel of 50 or 60 people 12 people will end up serving on the jury. Once the big jury panel gets into the courtroom the judge will explain to them their duties as potential jurors. The judge will also resolve any preliminary issues of eligibility for people that are unable to serve on the jury at this time for personal reasons. Once these preliminary issues are resolved by the judge then the lawyers for the state and the defense get to question the jury panel.

Striking Jurors

Each side can then strike a juror if it appears the juror is biased against you for one reason or another. This is known as striking a juror for cause. For example if a juror thinks that you're guilty before they've heard any evidence at all well you can't have that juror serve. He's already biased against you and is not going to give you a fair trial. What if a juror believes police officers always tell the truth no matter what and they'll believe a police officer over everybody else simply because they're police officers.  That person can't serve on the jury either because he's got his mind made up before he's heard any evidence from either side.

Peremptory Challenges

After the jurors have been struck for cause the attorneys have an opportunity to look at the list of jurors that are left over to exercise what are called peremptory challenges. This is what they use to get rid of people for any old reason they want. Except it can't be discriminatory you cannot get rid of them for sex or religion or race or something like that, It has to be a legitimate reason but you don't have to tell anybody.

12 Jurors Selected

Finally once all that is done the clerk will call the first 12 people that have not been crossed off by either side to serve on the jury.

Now you see how it works it's more like jury Deselection than jury selection you don't get to choose who sits on the jury you have to get rid of the ones you really absolutely don't want on the jury I hope this information was helpful.

Author: Andrew Williams

I am a criminal defense lawyer with over 30 years experience defending people accused of wrongdoing. I am board certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Only ten percent of attorneys in Texas are board certified in their respective field. I practice criminal law exclusively in both state and federal court including appeals of criminal cases.