Jury Restrictions
Can I be kicked off a jury?
There are many reasons why you still might get kicked off the jury, and that's why they usually have a couple of alternate jurors that they pick as well. If it's a jury of twelve, they may have fourteen people to serve on the jury, and those other two people will be sitting there listening as well. And here's some reasons you could get kicked off the jury: you consistently fall asleep when you should be listening to the testimony, you fail to show up on time to listen to the facts of the case, you show up inebriated, you appear to not be competent to follow what's going on in the courtroom, either you're constantly looking around and fiddling with your hair and chewing gum or you have a palm pilot you're playing with all the time or you're always texting your friends. There are many reasons you can be kicked off. Or and we're assuming you told the truth here, and they're not kicking you off because you said anything dishonest during voir dire, they may decide, after further investigating your background which they may still be doing after you've been seated on the jury, that there are circumstances in your background which you may not even be aware of, would probably disqualify you, but they decide that you may be uncomfortable trying to render a verdict in this case for some reason. And they may even discuss it with you. The judge may discuss it with you, but they still may ... I hate to say they're kicking you off the jury, but they're excusing you from that jury and replacing you with an alternate because they don't think that you can serve.
What personal questions are allowed in voir dire?
In a voir dire, they're going to ask questions about your educational background, your age and personal questions about your personal history to see whether or not they think you have had any life experiences that are going to bias you one way or the other to be on the jury for the case to which you may be assigned. If you're in a big jury pool, you may be considered for more than one case, so they may ask you a variety of questions because they don't want you to be biased or they may want you to be biased one way or the other, depending upon who's asking the questions. Or they don't want you to be, again, depending upon who's asking the questions. It's difficult to say what kind of questions they'll ask you in a voir dire, because you don't know what kind of case you're going to be assigned to yet, probably.
Why is my personal information released before the trial?
When you get a summons, and if you receive a questionnaire with that, or even if it's only your name and address, your personal information may be released to the prosecuting attorney, the defense attorney, the bailiff, the clerk of courts, and the judge. And also, to trial consultants hired by either side in the case. Now, they have no right to disclose any of that information to the public, but that information is given to them so that they can check your background, make sure that they think that you're a person they would want on the jury for their side of the case. To be honest, but don't let them manipulate you. You think as well as anyone else in that room. Keep your own mind. Keep your own wits. Render your verdict based on your conscience, and your sense of justice.
What is 'juror misconduct'?
Sometimes jurors can already be serving on a jury and they can be accused of juror misconduct and sometimes that can carry penalties. And some examples of juror misconduct would be going outside of the jury - you are not supposed to even talk to anybody about the case until you go into juror deliberation - but it would be going out and talking to the press while the case is going on. It would be giving opinions to the press, even talking to the press about anything. It could be going out and doing your own investigations about the case, asking people about the person on trial or the person making the accusations. It could be accepting money from someone to render a verdict one way or the other. Those are all examples of juror misconduct which should not happen. Don't do any of those things when you serve on a jury.
When is the courtroom closed to the public and the media?
Very often the judge will order the courtroom closed: sealed from the media and the public, to protect the people. And sometimes there's a witness who needs to be protected, because they're giving very sensitive information, and they don't want anybody to take revenge on that witness. And I've seen that happen in a couple of gang related cases where there was a young person who saw something happen, and needed to be brought in as a witness. And they've actually taken the defendants out of the courtroom. They might read the written testimony later, but the name and identification of the witness was expunged so that no one in the gang could go out and harm this person or anybody in their family. There are very good reasons that the judge often has to seal the courtroom and to seal certain information in the proceedings.
What is 'jury tampering'?
Sometimes when you serve on a jury, you're going to hear the term jury tampering. And jury tampering happens in several ways and unfortunately one of the ways it happens is that they may try to pick jurors who only think a certain way and that in a sense is jury tampering, that can be jury tampering from the bench, or jury tampering by the prosecutor or the defense because they're trying to stack the jury and that is tampering with the jury. Jury tampering can also happen if as you're leaving the courtroom somebody who may know something about a case hands you a whole list of facts about the case and tries to try to persuade you to vote one way or the other with your verdict, that's jury tampering. If anybody threatens you while you're serving on the jury and they say "if you convict my brother, you won't live to see another sunrise", that's not only jury tampering, that's felony jury tampering, they just threaten your life. If you, if anybody ever approaches you when you serve on the jury and tries to give you money, threatens you in any way, tries to give you information about the case immediately report it.
What does it mean to be 'sequestered'?
Sometimes if it's a very sensitive case or if it's a case that's had a lot of publicity and you're serving on the jury, they sequester the jury, they will not let you go home at night, they'll put you up in a hotel, they'll have your meals delivered or they'll clear the restaurant out so you can go have pizza somewhere but they will keep you from all media and they don't want you talk to anybody, they'll take the TVs out of your room and when they do that, that's sequestering a jury because they don't want you to get information from any other source, usually it's in some kind of a volatile case where there's a lot of media discussion and a lot of people are making a lot of assumptions or putting forth hypotheses about the case. They want you as a juror to rely upon the evidence that's been presented in the courtroom and not be tainted or swayed or influenced by all this other stuff that the media and we know the media does this, this is how they get their ratings and sell their papers or whatever, so sequestering is usually done for a very, very good reason.
How does the court decide what juries should be sequestered?
The judge is going to decide, if either the prosecutor or the defense attorney comes and says, "There's way too much media attention on this case, it's all over the news. They're not going to be able to go outside without being bombarded with this. If we let them go home their husbands and wives, their moms or dads, somebody's going to want to talk to them about this case. They know they're part of the jury in this case." And the judge may say, "You're right. We need to keep them as unbiased as possible and leave them as free to think their own thoughts and to consider the facts of the case as they need to be, without being influenced by the external events and news that's going on." So the judge may make a decision to sequester in that case.
How do jurors stay neutral when attorneys are trying to pursuade them?
The job of the prosecuting attorney is to convince you that the person is guilty. The job of the defense attorney is to convince you that the person is innocent. Unfortunately, these days, usually both attorneys are there not as advocates of justice but to win the case. And I want you to understand that dichotomy; they are not necessarily there for justice, they are there to win the case for their side. You need to be very careful, and you need to watch their gameplans and be aware of them and not be persuaded or influenced by their gameplans to win the case. You are to remember that you are there to serve the cause of justice. And that's what the jury is there to do, and you as an individual juror hold in your conscience and in your deliberations and in your verdict the power to render justice. It doesn't matter what anybody else says- you're an individual, you're one person, and you have an amazing amount of authority and power.
