How are jurors selected for a trial?
How are jurors selected for a trial?
Jury lists are compiled from voter registrations and driver license or ID renewals. A panel of jurors is then assigned to a courtroom. The prospective jurors are randomly selected to sit in the jury box. At this stage, they will be questioned in court by the judge and/or attorneys in the United States.
What are the stages of jury selection?
Jury Pool to Jury Box When a jury is needed for a trial, the group of qualified jurors is taken to the courtroom where the trial will take place. The judge and the attorneys then ask the potential jurors questions to determine their suitability to serve on the jury, a process called voir dire.
Are jurors compensated?
In California, jurors receive nominal compensation for each day spent at jury selection, or while serving on a jury. California pays jurors $15 per day, in addition to $0.34 per mile for travel (one way). Federal employees are entitled to transport reimbursement only.
What is the length of the average trial?
There will also be one or more pre-trial hearings. The actual length of the trial days in court can vary but will be heavily influenced by the complexity of the case. A trial can last up to several weeks, but most straightforward cases will conclude within a few days.
What happens if you end up with a hung jury?
If the jurors cannot agree on a verdict, a hung jury results, leading to a mistrial. The case is not decided, and it may be tried again at a later date before a new jury. Or the plaintiff or government may decide not to pursue the case further and there will be no subsequent trial.
What is the Batson rule?
Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court ruling that a prosecutor’s use of a peremptory challenge in a criminal case—the dismissal of jurors without stating a valid cause for doing so—may not be used to exclude jurors based solely on their race.
What happens if a Batson challenge is successful?
If the court grants a Batson challenge, then it must seat the potential juror who was excluded by the prosecutor on the jury.
Are Batson challenges successful?
If a juror has provided little or no case-specific information, a Batson challenge may very well prove successful.
What is a Batson challenge?
An objection to the validity of a peremptory challenge, on grounds that the other party used it to exclude a potential juror based on race, ethnicity, or sex. The result of a Batson challenge may be a new trial. The name comes from Batson v.
How do you raise a Batson challenge?
To establish a prima facie showing, a party making a Batson challenge must prove that 1) the stricken juror is in a protected group; 2) the opposing party used a peremptory strike against a member of that protected group; and 3) the facts and circumstances create an inference that the opposing party struck the juror …
Is the racial makeup of the jury important?
However, juries composed solely of one racial group are legal in the United States. While the racial composition of juries is not dictated by law, racial discrimination in the selection of jurors (regardless of the jury’s ultimate composition) is specifically prohibited.
Does Batson apply to defense?
On the bad side, Batson applies to defense challenges just like prosecution challenges. In addition, Batson isn’t limited to challenges of minority jurors; it’s been held to apply to any challenge based on race, including challenging a white juror based solely on his or her race.
Which is a common reason for a defendant to waive the preliminary hearing?
The reasons the defense might waive the right to a preliminary hearing include: The defendant intends to plead guilty and wants to avoid publicity (and expense, if the defendant is represented by private counsel).
What type of evidence is used to infer the existence of some fact in a dispute?
Circumstantial evidence allows a trier of fact to infer that a fact exists. In criminal law, the inference is made by the trier of fact in order to support the truth of an assertion (of guilt or absence of guilt).
What is a Batson charge?
Batson challenges are made during the jury selection portion of any state or federal criminal trial. If the judge feels enough of a showing has been made by the defense, he or she will then direct the Prosecutor to explain why that specific juror was eliminated.
What happened with the jury pool at Batson’s second trial?
(Powell, J.): In a 7–2 decision, the Court held that, while a defendant is not entitled to have a jury completely or partially composed of people of his own race, the state is not permitted to use its peremptory challenges to automatically exclude potential members of the jury because of their race.
What is a challenge for cause?
A challenge that aims to disqualify a potential juror for some stated reason. Typical reasons include bias, prejudice, or prior knowledge that would prevent impartial evaluation of the evidence presented in court. trial process/advocacy. courts.
How many challenges for cause does each side get in a trial?
20
Who can make a challenge for cause?
Challenge for cause is a practice that allows attorneys to remove prospective jurors who can’t render a fair and impartial verdict. A juror’s inability to hear a particular case may be based on a variety of factors, including close relationships with a party in the case, or actual and implied biases.
