Federal Court Cases: A Jury Analysis

The United States Constitution affords defendants the right to a trial by an impartial jury through the Sixth Amendment (Hall, 2015). The selection of the jury is a precursor stage for all jury trials, in this stage, the counsel for the defense as well as the counsel for the prosecution have the right to request the dismissal of a potential juror commonly referred to as voir dire. In the instance where there is a specific reason, a potential juror is to be dismissed it is called a challenge for cause. Conversely, in the instance where a there is no supported reason an attorney may use what is called a peremptory challenge to dismiss a potential juror. The main difference in the two challenges is the reasoning.

The federal court system permits 20 peremptory challenges for both the defense as well as the prosecution in cases punishable by death as well as capital crimes, consequently, they are only allowed 3 in misdemeanor cases (Hall, 2015). There is an unlimited amount of challenge for cause dismissals, this means with sound reason in which the court agrees hundreds of potential jurors could be dismissed before the final selection is complete. The rules within State courts are very similar to those of the federal court system. …show more content…
A challenge may be brought for unlawful peremptory challenges when a pattern has been established with the dismissal of like individuals. For instance, during jury selection, one attorney is continuously dismissing potential female jurors using their peremptory challenges an argument could be made they are displaying a