There are two basic differences between a challenge for cause and a peremptory challenge. A lawyer may generally use a peremptory challenge without giving a reason. Second, the number of challenges for cause available to the attorneys is unlimited, while the number of peremptory challenges is limited by statute.
How many peremptory challenges can a lawyer challenge?
Peremptory Challenge vs. Challenge for Cause During voire dire, each attorney is allowed to dismiss up to a specified number of potential jurors without giving a reason. This number varies by jurisdiction, but is generally between 6 and 20 peremptory challenges per attorney.
How many peremptory challenges does it take to get dismissed?
This number varies by jurisdiction, but is generally between 6 and 20 peremptory challenges per attorney. Attorneys may ask that a prospective juror be dismissed for some specific reason. This is referred to as a challenge for cause, and is submitted to the judge, who ultimately decides whether to dismiss the individual.
What is a challenge for cause in court?
This is referred to as a challenge for cause, and is submitted to the judge, who ultimately decides whether to dismiss the individual. Attorneys may make an unlimited number of challenges for cause. A challenge for cause may be made for any reason that the attorney feels would make the individual unable to judge without bias.
What is a voire dire or challenge for cause?
This process is referred to as voire dire, and the term challenge for cause, refers to the dismissal of a prospective juror because of a compelling reason to believe the individual could not be fair and unbiased.
What are the two types of challenges?
Two kinds of challenges are allowed in selecting the jury, challenges for cause, and peremptory challenges. A challenge for cause is exercised when the examination of a juror discloses some disqualification rendering him incompetent to try the accused. A peremptory challenge is one allowed by law without assigning any reason, ...
When a jury proves unsatisfactory to a party, he may be excused by the?
When a juror upon his examination proves unsatisfactory to a party, he may be excused by the exercise of a peremptory challenge, if his examination fails to disclose ground to challenge for cause. No matter how well qualified a juror may be, he may be excluded from the jury by peremptory challenge. And it is error for the court to refuse to allow a peremptory challenge after overruling a challenge for cause.17
What is a Peremptory Challenge?
A peremptory challenge is the act of removing a potential juror from a trial without explicit reason. The defendant and prosecutor are granted this power; the goal is that by balancing the power to remove jurors, biases can be eliminated, and the ensuing trial will be fair.
Reasons for a Peremptory Challenge
Peremptory challenges occur during the process of jury selection, or voir dire, and are one of the ways the legal system attempts to ensure a fair trial. Ideally, peremptory challenges are used to minimize the risk of bias on the part of jurors who may unconsciously pick a side in the trial in a way that subverts their entirely rational judgment.
Examples of Peremptory Challenge
A series of Supreme Court cases illustrate both the relatively recent controversy about peremptory challenges and the attempts to preserve them in the American legal system.
The Impact of a Peremptory Challenge
The ideal impact of a peremptory challenge is that a trial is fairer and more fully rational than if such challenges were not used to create a better jury. How is it that removing a juror without an explicit rationale could achieve fairness? The answer to this question comes down to the idea of balance.
