Jury selection in the US

[merrily]

How does that work, exactly? Although I watch crime shows (SVU) I don't know if they overdramatize some of the aspects in jury selection. Can you bribe a jury? What happens in high profile case- how do they pick nonbias jurors? For example the Boston Bombing, surely everyone has heard about this?

... And also another question although a bit off topic, the police in the crime shows go about assigning witnesses 'safe houses', how does that work?

[happy atheist]

I'm not a lawyer, and I've never served on a jury, but Mr Atheist has.

For jury selection: potential jurors are selected randomly from the list of registered voters. You get a notice in the mail informing you of the date, sometime in the future. If you have a good reason, you will be excused from duty. For instance, I was called for jury duty once when I was still breastfeeding. That got me excused.

On the date of jury selection you go to the courthouse. They call a lot more potential jurors than they need. The lawyers from both sides get to ask questions to judge your impartiality. They will ask questions about whether you've already formed an opinion on the case, what sort of media and news you watch/read, what your job is.

There are a lot of complicated rules, but what I think it boils down to is, if you are obviously not a good choice (say, your brother is the defendant, or your mom is the arresting officer) you are dismissed. In addition, each side (defense and prosecution) has a limited number of dismissals that they can use just because they feel like it. So if they want a jury that is mostly women because they think women will be more sympathetic to their case, they can dismiss a man just because he's a man. They don't say that's why they're doing it. For most trials this isn't a big thing, but in high-profile cases they might hire jury consultants who help them determine the optimal racial/gender/economic status makeup of the jury, and try to use their challenges to get that makeup.

I think for most trials it's easy to get a nonbiased jury because most cases don't have a lot of publicity. For something like the Boston bombing, they will bring in a huge pool of potential jurors, and they will probably try to find people who haven't paid a lot of attention to media coverage. Good luck with that. They will use jurors who have some knowledge of the case, if the juror seems capable of being impartial.

Sometimes a case will have a change of venue, which is when they hold the trial in a different town or county, in order to have a pool of jurors who aren't as familiar with or invested in a case.

Bribing a jury is illegal, and I don't think it happens very often. I don't think jurors' names are released, so that would make it harder to figure out who to bribe.

As for a safe house, that's another thing I don't think happens very often in real life. It would mainly just be used in a case where there was reason to expect someone to try to harm a witness before they have a chance to testify. It's sort of like being in protective custody, I think. The police provide a hotel room and a guard.

[Lady Grass Lake]

Somewhere in the let's call people for Jury Duty land, there is a huge gold star next to my name. I have been called up 14 times, while my Husband has been called once. All but one time was local district court, but once it was Federal Jury Duty 50 miles from my home. You don't get out of that one unless your're in the hospital. If you don't have a car, they will pay cab fare. The Federal case was for child porn, one I would not have wanted to be sitting on. I figured if they had enough to bring him to Federal court, he was guilty. I would have had to excuse myself if asked, because I would not have been able to give him a fair trial.

District court can be any type of crime, robbery, rape, murder, medical lawsuits. You serve for either one or two weeks, and in my district you call every night to find out if you have to come in the next day. You go as a group into the court room and they call 12 names, then the questions start. You fill out a questionnaire before hand so they know your age, and occupation. Each side can dismiss up to 5 people for no reason, and more if you know someone involved in the trial, or the person on trial, have an occupation that might prejudice you for or against the person. As they dismiss potential jurors, more names are drawn and more people get questioned. I understand the lawyers try and stack the jury if possible. If it's a young guy on a drunk driving case or rape cases, they want young guys on the jury. Medical Malpractice, they try and get people of the same age. Once they get get 12, the fun starts.

First you get to listen to opening statements and then witnesses. They dress up the defendants in nice clothes and they have a nice haircut, nothing wild, no wild makeup, but you know deep down inside someone just bought them that new dress shirt at Target.

It's harder than you think. I was on a trial where a convicted felon was being charged with possession of a firearm. They were able to place the gun in his home, and his Mother had spoken to a police officer and said she was afraid because he had the gun that morning, but it was not found on him. No fingerprints either. Between the arrest and trial, his Mom died, so there is no good witness. You just knew it was his gun, but there was absolutely no proof it was his. We had to declare him not guilty, and it just burned my backside to do so. Judge came in after and said we made the right decision, not guilty, but don't worry, he'd be back in front of a judge within the year. A few months later I'm listening to the news and some young punk had a verbal fight with some ladies in a store. A few minutes later he was walking down the street and the ladies were out on the front porch. He got into another argument with the ladies and while walking up to the porch, he pulled a gun out of his pants and started waving it at the ladies. What he didn't know was one of them had a baseball bat next to her chair and when he pointed the gun at her, she hit him up side the head with the bat and knocked him out and he ended up in the hospital with a fractured skull. This time there were witnesses to the gun, and his fingerprints and once he got out of the hospital, he was given a room at the local state prison with 3 hots and a cot for about 20 years or so. At the ripe old age of 19. Hate to admit it, but he had an uncommon name and when I heard it was him, I actually cheered.

While it's a pain, and sometimes uncomfortable to serve on some cases, I do it because if I was ever being tried for something I would pray that 12 reasonable intelligent people would be deciding my fate, and not just those people who couldn't figure out a way to get off.

[Mama Mia]

:lol: The two times I made it to the questioning by the lawyers I was dismissed. Once by the prosecution and once by the defense. I worked in social services and the prosecution assumed I would be too bleeding heart, this poor criminal must have a reason for acting out, let them go. The defense assumed I would be too cynical, people are all evil, lock them up and throw away the key. Both of those sts of assumptions are pretty accurate. :lol:

[ShadowyOne]

I will add a little bit from my perspective (though I would like to hear the perspective of any legal professionals, as well). I have been called a couple of times, and served once. In my area, your name is picked randomly from the voter lists, and you receive a short survey (age, occupation, other demographic data) which you return by mail, and a date to show up. On that date, you sit around in a holding area (often for a half day or more) until your name is pulled for the potential jury pool of a specific trial, and then you go up to that courtroom. The lawyers take turns asking you questions to see whether they want to dismiss you. One thing they always ask you is whether you personally know anyone involved in the case. Once I was dismissed (I'm pretty sure) because my dad owns a mediation business that some of the legal counsel had some connection with.

Some potential jurors answer questions in order to seem biased specifically aiming to get themselves dismissed (i.e., implying that they have a racial bias, or bad experiences with cops, doctors, whatever). I've never been eager to serve, but I've never been comfortable with outright lying in order to get myself dismissed. It's pretty thankless, and time-consuming (the process of waiting around and selection can take two or three days, even before you serve on a trial. You get nominally compensated (IIRC, in my area, it was something like $12 a day for every day you show up but are not chosen, and $24 per day if you are selected to serve). Not really worth it, but I've always received my regular pay from jobs as well when I've had time off work for jury duty (I know that employers legally must allow you to go serve, but I'm not sure if they are required to compensate you as well).

The case that I served on was that of a young man and whether he tried to use his vehicle as a deadly weapon to try to run over a police officer (or was simply trying to get away, per the defense). We did convict him, and the judge gave us a way to look him up after the sentencing, if we were interested to see how long he was given (I didn't bother).

[RainbowSky]

Where I live (or where I did? I don't remember if it was after I switched to my new state or when I renewed before I moved) it goes by anyone with a license is in the pool to potentially be called. Not registered voters. I know 3 people from before and one here who have served and the rest sounds about how they said it went!

[Mary C Doates]

I've been called for jury duty at least a dozen times, and served once. You can get called for local, state or federal courts, and the cases may be civil or criminal. There's been more of an effort to avoid having potential jurors hanging around for long periods with nothing to do, so they often have you call the night before to tell you if you need to show up at all. If you do have to show up, my experience has been that they generally assigned everyone to a jury pool within a couple of hours, then sent everyone else home for the day. I think most people who weren't picked for a jury were dismissed in a day or two. A friend of mine served on a state grand jury, which involved having to go to court one day a week for 6 months.

A bunch of potential jurors are sent to a courtroom where the lawyers, judge, plaintiffs and defendants are gathered. You're asked a bunch of questions about your background, education, work experience, etc.. You may also be asked specific questions that might reveal your opinions about issues pertinent to the case. I was in a jury pool of about 50 people in NYC, for a case involving counterfeiting, gun-running and drug dealing. One of the lawyers asked the group if any of us had been the victim of a crime, and every person raised their hand to indicate "yes". When they asked how many had been a victim of a crime where a gun was used, over half the people said they had. We were all dismissed. Hey, it was the 1980's--not a great era for public safety in NYC. I can't imagine how they ever found enough jurors to try the case!

I was on a federal breach of contract trial involving concert promotors who had once been partners but who were now suing each other. Sex, drugs, rock'n'roll, and lying, back-stabbing sleazeballs--this case had it all. They flew in a witness from Europe, dressed him in a borrowed jacket, and asked him if he remembered a conversation; he said "No" and flew back to Europe after no more than 60 seconds on the stand. He was probably stoned. The trial went on for two weeks. It was pretty interesting, and not very stressful since this wasn't a case that involved injury or death or anything potentially dangerous. We reached a verdict in a couple of hours--neither party proved their case, so I guess they went on to sue each other in some other court.

[merrily]

Wow. Thanks for the answers.

[ADoyle90815]

I've been called for jury duty, and when I was in college, I just had it postponed to a time when I wasn't in school such as summer or winter break. The time I actually ended up on a jury, it was a civil case that only lasted a full day, and it took us only an hour to decide on the verdict. It was basically a frivolous lawsuit, and the verdict was in favor of the plaintiff.

For many years now, my state had a system where you called every day for the week you're assigned, and if your group number wasn't called by Thursday, you got a message saying you completed your service. I actually had to go in twice since the new system went into effect, and the longest I had to wait in the jury holding area was for half a day, since if you didn't get called to a courtroom or ended up on a jury, you're done for a year. The nice thing about the courthouse I usually serve in is that the jury area has a huge balcony which is a nice place to spend the time.

[Savoring Samsara]

I hear tell that the magic words to get out of jury duty during the selection phase are "jury nullification"... ;)

[Conuly]

Can you bribe a jury?

LOL, what a question! As the amount of money in your bank account goes up and the amount of scruples you have goes down, the number of things that are technically possible to do just continues to rise and rise. So yes, I suppose you can bribe a jury.

But then, at that point, so can the other guy, and if you get reported you're going to be in SOOOOO much trouble, so I don't think it happens all that often.

[happy atheist]

It's pretty thankless

Generally thankless.

Mr Atheist served on a jury for a case involving the sexual abuse of a child by the step-father. They found the guy guilty, and the kid's father was very grateful.

[gezykah]

I've only been called to jury duty once. It was in mid-September 2001. I was still in college. They gathered a couple hundred of us in a large room and said they normally didn't call a pool of people that big but they needed to select people that day for one big and four small trials. While in the room we watch a video made by the state with general info on jury duty. Then to kill time since they had such a large group we watched the Today show. Most of the coverage was about the aftermath of 9/11. Eventually most of us were assigned to go to different court rooms. I had to go to the one where the "big" trial was going to be held. I noticed all the other college students were dismissed. There was a moment in the bigger room where I thought I'd be picked so this gave me a little hope. Classes were just beginning and I didn't want to lose my spot in any of them. When I was talking to the judge and attorneys the subject of me being in college came up. It sounded like they were going to let me go until they asked my major. I was majoring in Poli-Sci with a minor in History. I ended up being one of the first people they seated. Jury selection took four days, the trial was six days, then we spent a day and a half deliberating.

The charges were assault, assault with a deadly weapon, and attempted murder. Fourteen of us were seated but one was dismissed almost immediately. I was the youngest one so some of the others assumed I'd be the alternate but it wasn't until the trial ended that we realized they randomly choose who would be the alternate. I was glad I got to be on the jury since I figured if I had to sit through all that I deserved to have a say. I spoke to the alternate after the trial. She was glad she didn't get chosen. She didn't want to make a decision plus it gave her time to nap and crochet.

We found him guilty of assault with a deadly weapon. Some of the jurors complained that it wasn't like Court TV or Law & Order which I think was a bit ridiculous but the case was poorly put together. For example the police asked the plaintiff and defendant to provide caller ID evidence. That struck me as something they should've gathered instead of leaving it to people who are biased. At one point the prosecutor mistook the victims freckles for stab wounds. While looking at the evidence I noticed one of the medical records had the wrong name on it. We couldn't be sure if it was a typo or if it really belonged to the victim. Evidence we in the jury thought was important like the defendant's blood alcohol level were introduced into evidence without explanation. That alone was the single biggest factor in us not finding him guilty of attempted murder. We talked about how if we were following the case in the news we could research the effect of blood alcohol levels on premeditation but as jurors we couldn't do that. After it was over one of the bailiffs warned us if we were picked once we'd probably be picked again soon. I better not get stuck on that Boston bomber jury to make up for lost time.

[tanksmom]

*Raises hand* I've had jury duty 7 times and was selected once. I didn't mind having to go down to be potentially choses except it is a very boring waste of a day with next to no pay. And since 4 of the 7 times I was working as a waitress not going into work meant losing money from tips. For some reason I tend to get sent for civil cases instead of criminal. Civil cases are usually shorter and pretty cut and dried for the most part. The only one I was ever chosen for was a criminal case.

With that said there is nothing like jury duty to make you realize how much you can dislike your fellow humanbeings. The case I was chosen for was aggravated assault, armed robbery and threatening deadly force against a protected person (in this case aiming a gun at the police) The people I sat on the jury with went from stating that they hated the police so the defendant was not guilty no matter the evidence to all *insert minority here* were criminals so the defendant was guilty no matter the evidence. By the end of the week of deliberation the more rational people on the jury were able to talk the extremists into a compromise but all in all I don't think that the jury process worked as it was meant to.

[bookiewookie]

Does anyone know if they use anything other than voter registration lists to call people for jury duty? One of my relatives has been in the US for decades as a resident alien (not a citizen and therefore cannot vote) and yet still gets called for jury duty every now and then. They can't serve on a jury for this same reason, yet they still get called every couple of years. *facepalm*

[ShadowyOne]

Does anyone know if they use anything other than voter registration lists to call people for jury duty? One of my relatives has been in the US for decades as a resident alien (not a citizen and therefore cannot vote) and yet still gets called for jury duty every now and then. They can't serve on a jury for this same reason, yet they still get called every couple of years. *facepalm*

I think that some places use driver's license and/or motor vehicle registration.

[Palimpsest]

How does that work, exactly? Although I watch crime shows (SVU) I don't know if they overdramatize some of the aspects in jury selection. Can you bribe a jury? What happens in high profile case- how do they pick nonbias jurors? For example the Boston Bombing, surely everyone has heard about this?

... And also another question although a bit off topic, the police in the crime shows go about assigning witnesses 'safe houses', how does that work?

Ah, the Boston Bombing case. It will be very hard to pick a unbiased jury. There is some advantage to the UK and Australian systems where there is a shut-down of the press in criminal cases.

The defense will move for a change of venue. This is a Federal Case and a Death Penalty case (MA does not have the death penalty) so we are watching, wondering and waiting to see what will happen. Chances are that they will try to move it out of Boston to either Worcester or Springfield, the two other large cities in MA. Worcester is still within commuter distance of Boston, so our speculation is for Springfield.

If it is Worcester, then Mr P might be summonsed (our town is strangely jerrymandered into Worcester County.) He he last served on a jury 18+ years ago (civil case). He was not selected on a criminal case 8+ years ago. It was a child sexual abuse case. The question was asked if he had personal experience of child sexual abuse. He said: "Well, I was an altar boy in a Catholic Church . . . " and was dismissed by the defense before he could finish the sentence! This is Massachusetts.

I suppose he might be called this time because they will need a huge jury selection pool for the Boston Bomber trial. There is a possibility that I might be called too, as they go by driving licenses here.

If either of us are summonsed, I will have to send in a copy of my green card to prove I'm not a citizen. Mr P will be disqualified early anyway. He and I are both vocally against the death penalty. They will need a "death qualified jury" for this trial.

[RosyDaisy]

Sometimes jurors are sequestered due to the publicity the trial is getting, not because of threats. Some high-profile cases in my area are given a change of venue due to too much publicity. I've only been called for jury duty twice, and in both instances it involved petty crime, and the defendant at the last minute agreed to a plea bargain. I got compensated for gas money (which was a lot less than the actual price of gas) and my employer offers paid time off for jury duty. I feel that if I'm called for jury duty it is my civic responsibility to serve unless I were sick. However, am anti-death penalty, and would raise an objection to serving on a jury in which a guilty verdict could mean the death penalty.

[Mary C Doates]

Sometimes jurors are sequestered due to the publicity the trial is getting, not because of threats. Some high-profile cases in my area are given a change of venue due to too much publicity. I've only been called for jury duty twice, and in both instances it involved petty crime, and the defendant at the last minute agreed to a plea bargain. I got compensated for gas money (which was a lot less than the actual price of gas) and my employer offers paid time off for jury duty. I feel that if I'm called for jury duty it is my civic responsibility to serve unless I were sick. However, am anti-death penalty, and would raise an objection to serving on a jury in which a guilty verdict could mean the death penalty.

My employer is required to pay me my full salary when I am on jury duty, and federal court also paid me a daily amount (something like $50.00, I think), plus mileage from my house, tolls and parking.

I went to jury duty a few times in Federal Court in NYC, which is right off Chinatown. We got 60-90 minutes for lunch, so got to sample food in several nearby Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai restaurants. The main juror room is right off a plaza where you could join Tai Chi sessions or just loll around in the sun. Made the experience much less tedious.

[lilwriter85]

I live in an area where potential jurors are drawn from both voter registration records and driver license's and IDs. I have never been called for jury duty. But my mother served on one about 10 years ago. It was a robbery trial.