Jury Selection

Paper Summary:

This paper contends that even jurors are just human and are prone to the same kinds of mistakes that all people make and that it is the responsibility of the courts and their officers to ensure that those who serve on juries possess the requisite qualifications to serve without prejudice. To determine what these qualifications are and how they are discerned during the jury selection process, this paper provides an overview of voir dire, case law and a discussion of how these play out in real-world settings today. A summary of the research and salient findings are provided in the conclusion.

Outline:
Introduction
Review and Discussion
Background and Overview
Controlling Legislation
Common Jury Selection Strategies
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Constitutional interpretations of the law vary according to the social context in which they are made, and this is clearly evident in the Supreme Court decisions over the years concerning jury selection. "Because of constitutional law's indeterminacy," Klarman (2004) advises, "social and political context matters greatly to constitutional interpretation, as the Court's decisions in the race area demonstrate" (pp. 448-9). According to this author, the Supreme Court addressed race discrimination in jury service for the first time in Strauder v. West Virginia (1880). In this case, the Court struck down a law that prohibited blacks from serving on juries; however, Klarman emphasizes that Strauder relied on the Fourteenth Amendment rather than the 1866 Civil Rights Act and focused on the civil rights of black defendants instead of the political rights of jurors who were excluded from service by virtue of their race."

Sample of Sources Used:

• courtroom. American Criminal Law Review, 31(4), 1225-52.
• Batson v. Kentucky, (1986). 476 U.S. 79.
• Black's law dictionary. (1990). St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co.
• Garcia, A. (1992). The Sixth Amendment in modern American jurisprudence: A critical perspective. New York: Greenwood Press.
• Klarman, M. J. (2004). From Jim Crow to civil rights: The Supreme Court and the struggle for racial equality. New York: Oxford University Press.

More papers on Jury Selection:

• Essay # 72317 : "Scientific Jury Selection"
• Essay # 87542 : "Race and Jury Selection"
• Research Paper # 52776 : "Racial Discrimination and Jury Selection"

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