How are jury members who decide the fate of some cases often selected?
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How are jury members who decide the fate of some cases often selected?
In the American justice system, there’s a whole process for jury selection called the “voir dire”. Basically, you start off with a bunch of people randomly being selected to come in for jury duty with no consideration for how qualified they are. Once these people are gathered, the lawyers for both sides of the case get an opportunity to interview the potential jurors. There are some regulations on how this is done specifically, but the general idea is that both lawyers under the supervision of the judge have an opportunity to get rid of people they don’t want to see on the jury. In many cases, the lawyers’ concerns deal more with determining how biased the potential jurors are, rather than how rational they are. Persons who have been diagnosed to be mentally unstable are also exempted from jury selection.
A jury is often made up of 12 people, but more than 12 people are summoned to the selection process. This is to make sure the jury is made up of a variety of people that accurately represents wider community. This means that even though you’ve been summoned, you might not get selected to be on a jury. As a juror, you must promise to do your best to be fair and open-minded. You make this promise by swearing an oath or making an affirmation.