Jury Selection Process Essay

There are a few steps to the jury selection process. The jury is selected from a jury pool. A jury pool is a list composed of registered voters, voter registrations, carriers of hunting licenses, utility bills and state issued drivers licenses. Jurors of six and twelve individuals are chosen from a jury pool. Then the selection process begins. The first step is a random selection from a jury pool. The second step is the jury selection, known as voir dire. Voire Dire is a jury procedure, which the court and the attorneys narrow the pool of jurors. This process is done by the judge randomly selecting people in the juror pool to be excused and/or the attorneys questioning potential jurors to screen out individuals the attorneys think might be biased or otherwise incapable of delivering a fair verdict. In some instances, an attorney may have reason to believe there is information that suggests a juror maybe prejudiced about the case and ask the judge to dismiss the juror for cause. Next, there is the challenge for cause. If a potential juror’s responses indicate that he or she will not be able to make a fair decision, then the attorney may ask the judge to remove that prospective juror from the case. Lastly, there is the peremptory challenge. Peremptory challenge is when the prosecution and defense can removal potential jurors …show more content…
Prosecutors and defense attorneys seek to identify potential jurors who may be instinctively sympathetic or hostile to their side. Then try to find ways to exclude those potential jurors who may sympathize with the other side. People always apply their experiences, values, biases and beliefs to their decision making, which can hurt an innocent person on trial. Racism is common in jury selections too. Black defendants are significantly more likely than whites to be convicted on at least two crimes when there are no potential black jurors in the jury