Blog

The single most important part of the case.  Pick the wrong juror and you will lose the case.  

This morning we are sitting 6 jurors for the trial. Judge called up 25 jurors to chose from.  However after an hour of the judge explaining their duties.  The judge calls 12 to the jury box.  At first I am pretty happy with the selection. Out of the twelve I have 5 men and 6 minorities.  I represent a Hispanic male  on a domestic violence case.   In my mind the perfect juror is a blue collar minority male.
 
Voire Dire is the toughest part of the case for me and honestly a skill I could use improving.  You don’t want to ask the wrong question to the wrong juror.  Nor do you want to ask the right question to the right juror, because the other side may kick them off.  

After voire dire the prosecution kicks off the first juror ( we get 3 each). Of course there goes my first male. I get rid of a older white female, I could not get a good read on.  Prosecution gets rid of their 2nd a Hispanic female.  I get rid of a white male who was strictly pro police.  Last kick off by prosecution is a male I really liked. My final choice is a young female that might have had some issues with my aggressive tone.  We are left with four females.  Two of them Hispanic and one white male and one Hispanic male. Suddenly I am not as confident!