What is 'voir dire'?

What is 'voir dire'?

Voir dire means to speak the truth. And they want you to answer truthfully when they ask you these questions. And they'll ask you questions, you won't know this at the time, but let's say it's a marijuana case. They're going to say, "Have any of your friends ever been arrested, or anybody in your family ever been arrested, for marijuana possession?" And you may say no, because that's the truth. And then they'll say, "Do you feel that marijuana laws in this country are fair?" And if you say, "I think they're really stupid and I don't think the government has any business telling people what they can do with their own bodies," they're going to dismiss you immediately. The prosecutor is going to dismiss you. He'll be very nice, he'll say, "Thank you for coming, you're dismissed." Or the judge may even say, "Thank you for coming, you're dismissed." If you say, "Well, I know we have marijuana laws, I guess I've never really thought about it," they'll say, "Okay, maybe she's our girl, because she's really not prejudiced." If, on the other hand, you say, "Anybody who's caught with marijuana should immediately be put in jail for five years," the defence attorney or the judge or both again will say, "Thank you very much for showing up. You're dismissed." They don't want you to come in with a lot of preconceived notions about a case that you may be sitting in judgment about.