NCJ Number
118912
Date Published
1989
Length
141 pages
Annotation
Rules and principles to guide jury selection are outlined by a lawyer who served as a trial judge for over 20 years.
Abstract
The author contends that jury selection is based on educated guesswork, since every generalization about human behavior has exceptions. People reflect a composite of such factors as sex, age, race, occupation, and personal experience, all of which impact attitudes. There are three approaches to jury selection: by the court exclusively; by the court and counsel; and by counsel exclusively. Rules and principles to guide the jury selection process focus on client and counsel conduct, questioning styles and techniques, challenging techniques, objections, juror evaluation, and bias and prejudice. Guidelines are offered to help assess the influence of juror occupation, race, nationality, religion, personality, physical signs, body language, dress, personal characteristics, age, sex, and marital status on case outcome. Questions to ask in civil and criminal cases and in special situations such as drunk driving cases, juror disqualification, police witnesses, pretrial publicity, prejudice, and whiplash cases are delineated.