Exploring the Importance of the Jury Selection Process
This is Wagoner Attorney Stuart Ericson. Today we’re talking about the beginning of a jury trial, and that is jury selection, or it’s sometimes called voir dire, which is to speak the truth.
It’s where the judge asks the jury questions about their background and any biases, and then the attorney for the state gets to ask questions, and then the defendant’s attorney, which would be me, gets to ask questions.
So I want to know from jurors how they feel about certain topics, if they have a lot of relatives in law enforcement where they might, in a biased way, just, hey, my brother’s a police officer. I believe police officers. I’m going to believe the police officers in this case. So I want to know that kind of thing. I want to know if anybody has been accused of a crime that later turned out to be bogus because they might be a juror that we want because they may think these charges aren’t right.
So basically you’re trying to figure out how these jurors think, how they might be predisposed to keeping an open mind or if they have a closed mind because in jury selection, I would get to kick off as many potential jurors for cause. If I have a cause or a reason, a legal reason to kick them off, I would do that.
Importance of Jury Selection
And then depending on what kind of case it is, you either get five or nine called peremptory challenges where I can just kick somebody off for any reason at all. And so as my client, you would be sitting next to me in this jury trial, in this jury selection and I would get your opinion too.
I mean, how do people look? How are they looking at you? Are they looking at you like, yep, you’re guilty or huh, I’m going to really listen and stay open-minded. So, one of the main things to begin a jury trial is jury selection.
Get Legal Advice for Your Case
So if you have any questions about your case and about whether to take a deal or to go to jury trial, reach out to me, Stuart Ericson at wagonerlawyer.com.
