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First Voire Dire
Yesterday I watched voire dire (jury selection) for the first time. It was a fairly simple DUI appeal but interesting nonetheless. The prosecution asked very obvious questions to which it seemed highly unlikely anyone would give a "yes" answer. One question was: "Are you sensible of any bias or prejudice against the defendant or the state?" How many people are going to raise their hands and say "yeah, I really hate people like the defendant" or "I think the state should always lose!" Perhaps not many people feel that way, but even fewer would be likely to admit it in open court.
The defense attorney asked an interesting (possibly standard) question: "How many people here know that, as of now, my client is not guilty?" Only about half the potential jurors raised their hand. So much for presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Posted May 19, 2004 05:27 AM | 1L summer
when i was on jury duty a few months ago, a hippie girl raised her hand for the bias against the state questions. we overheard when she talked to the judge that she didn't think the state had the authority to put people in jail, didn't believe in government, etc. she got out of jury duty.
Posted by: monica at May 19, 2004 09:37 AM
