the to challenge a potential juror without disclosing the reason for the challenge. Prosecutors and defense attorneys routinely use peremptory challenges to eliminate from juries individuals who, although they express no obvious bias, are thought to be capable of swaying the jury in an undesirable direction.
What is a peremptory challenge?
A peremptory challenge may be used by either party to a legal action in the jury -selection phase, to dismiss a potential juror without stating a reason. Other peremptory orders may be made by the court, such as setting a peremptory trial date, which cannot be changed or challenged by either party.
How many peremptory challenges can a lawyer file?
In addition to dismissals for cause, each attorney is allowed a specific limited number of peremptory challenges, which allow them to dismiss jury candidates without stating any reason at all. The number of peremptory challenges allowed each party varies by state. Peremptory Challenge and Juror Bias
Can a peremptory order be changed by the court?
Other peremptory orders may be made by the court, such as setting a peremptory trial date, which cannot be changed or challenged by either party. This is unusual, but may occur if the parties have unreasonably delayed the trial on multiple occasions. To explore this concept, consider the following peremptory challenge definition.
What is a peremptory?
While the term peremptory may be used to refer to a variety of rulings, orders, or decisions in the U.S. legal system, its most common use is in the jury selection process. When a jury is needed for a trial, potential jurors report to the courthouse, where they go through a selection process known as voir dire.
For what reasons might an attorney use a peremptory challenge give specific examples?
In criminal cases, parties may challenge jurors for cause during jury selection (for example, when a juror expresses an inability to be fair and impartial) or may use a certain number of peremptory challenges to remove jurors without cause.
What are peremptory challenges used for?
Peremptory - Each side in a case has a certain number of challenges that need not be supported by any reason, although a party may not use such a challenge in a way that discriminates against certain kinds of groups, such as a racial minority or one gender. These are called peremptory challenges.
What are two situations that might amount to a challenge for cause?
Causes include acquaintanceship with either of the parties, one of the attorneys or a witness, the potential juror's expression during voir dire (questioning of the prospective jurors) of inability to be unbiased due to prior experience in a similar case (having been convicted of drunk driving, being a battered wife, ...
How many peremptory challenges can a lawyer make in jury selection?
In California, for most cases the number of peremptory challenges available to each lawyer is ten so long as there is one defendant. For death penalty or life imprisonment cases where a single defendant is involved, each attorney is permitted 20 peremptory challenges.
Which of the following best describes a peremptory challenge?
The term peremptory challenge refers to the practice of excusing potential jurors without providing a reason why. Jurors may also be excluded because the attorneys and the judge believe that the juror, for whatever reason, can't be fair. This is called a 'for cause' challenge.
What is an example of challenge for cause?
a request made to the judge during voir dire that a prospective juror be removed for some specific reason. For example, a juror with some relationship to either the prosecution or the defense may be removed as a result of a challenge for cause.
What two challenges can an attorney make for potential jurors that he wishes to exclude describe each challenge?
After questioning prospective jurors, each side's attorney may challenge certain jurors using two types of challenges: "for cause" and "peremptory." By challenging a juror, the attorney is asking the judge to excuse that juror from the panel.
What type of challenge is one in which the attorney states the reason why a prospective juror should not be included on the jury?
These are called "peremptory" challenges. Each side may ask the judge to excuse particular jurors. If a juror is excused, this does not imply something bad and does not mean the juror is not competent. It frequently happens that a prospective juror will be excused in a certain case and accepted in a different one.
Who makes the final decision when a lawyer uses a challenge for cause on a potential juror?
Who makes the final decision when a lawyer uses a challenge for cause on a potential juror? The Judge.
What can be removed by a peremptory challenge?
A peremptory challenge results in the exclusion of a potential juror without the need for any reason or explanation - unless the opposing party presents a prima facie argument that this challenge was used to discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, or sex.
What is the difference between being excused for cause and a peremptory challenge?
Challenges for cause differ from peremptory challenges, which may be used by either side to remove prospective jurors for any reason. While there's no real limit to the amount of challenges for cause that may be used, the attorney must state a specific reason as to why the challenged juror can't be fair.
What procedure is the trial judge supposed to use to determine if the prosecutor's peremptory challenge was based on race?
The Batson testThe Batson test requires the defendant to show that he is a member of a cognizable racial group, and that the prosecutor has exercised peremptory challenges to remove members of that group.
Do peremptory strikes lead to discrimination in jury selection?
In Batson v. Kentucky, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the prosecution may not use peremptory strikes to exclude a potential juror based on race. If the defense believes the prosecution peremptorily struck a potential juror for this reason, the defense must make an initial showing of racial discrimination.
What procedure is the trial judge supposed to use to determine if the prosecutor's peremptory challenge was based on race?
The Batson testThe Batson test requires the defendant to show that he is a member of a cognizable racial group, and that the prosecutor has exercised peremptory challenges to remove members of that group.
What are the problems with the jury selection process?
Preconceived notions, bias, and other ingrained beliefs can leave jurors positioned against your case before it even begins. For that reason, lawyers dig deep during the selection process to identify jurors who might not work well for your case. Then, they excuse those jurors one by one to build a solid jury.
What has previous case law determined regarding peremptory challenges?
3d 258, the Supreme Court held that the use of peremptory challenges by a prosecutor to strike prospective jurors on the basis of group membership or bias violates the right of a criminal defendant to trial by a jury drawn from a representative cross-section of the community under article I, section 16 of the ...
What is a peremptory challenge?
In a legal context, the term peremptory refers to a decisive challenge with no opportunity given for debate, denial, or refusal. A peremptory challenge may be used by either party to a legal action in the jury-selection phase, to dismiss a potential juror without stating a reason. Other peremptory orders may be made by the court, ...
What is the peremptory process?
While the term peremptory may be used to refer to a variety of rulings, orders, or decisions in the U .S. legal system, its most common use is in the jury selection process. When a jury is needed for a trial, potential jurors report to the courthouse, where they go through a selection process known as voir dire. During this process, the judge and the parties’ attorneys question each potential juror to determine whether any have a bias toward the case or the defendant.
What is the purpose of jury trial?
The purpose of a jury trial is to ensure that court cases are heard, considered, and decided by an unbiased panel of the defendant’s peers. Empaneling jurors who are prejudiced about the case before it even begins would not meet this goal. The voir dire process allows the parties to weed out jurors who, for some reason, may not be able to provide an impartial opinion, or who may not be able to serve without distractions, such as a health problem, or small children left at home during a long trial.
What was the precedent in the Baston case?
As such, the matter was returned for a new trial. The precedent set by Baston has since been expanded to include dismissal by peremptory challenge of individuals based on sex.
Why is excluding jurors based on race bad?
wrote that excluding jurors based on race not only violates the rights of the accused to a fair and unbiased trial, but is “devastating to the community at large,” because it “undermines public confidence in the fairness of our system of justice.”.
What is a jury in a trial?
Jury – A group of people sworn to render a verdict in a trial, based on evidence presented.
Can an attorney dismiss a jury?
Either attorney may dismiss any jury candidate for cause, meaning there is a definitive reason he feels the individual would not be impartial. In addition to dismissals for cause, each attorney is allowed a specific limited number of peremptory challenges, which allow them to dismiss jury candidates without stating any reason at all. The number of peremptory challenges allowed each party varies by state.
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.
Why do we use peremptory challenges?
The use of peremptory challenges does permit a party to de-select those jurors who appear biased toward the opposing party, ultimately resulting in a fairer jury .
How to abolish discrimination in peremptory challenges?
One author has suggested that the way to abolish discrimination in peremptory challenges is to change the required finding at step three from one of the challenging party’s intent to the impact of the challenge on the jury’s diversity. 121 Batson “has proven toothless at preventing discriminatory jury strikes because judges routinely accept pretextual race-neutral excuses for them.” 122 The message, this author argues, is that parties “may continue to create all-white juries using peremptory challenges and excuse them with race-neutral pretexts as long as they don’t do it . . . blatantly.” 123 If her recommendation was adopted, the trial court would look at the makeup of the jury in determining whether discrimination was at play. The author argues that the reality is that white jurors presume that minority defendants are guilty based upon racism. 124 According to this author, “In short, the all-white juries of the slavery system were a mechanism used by whites to uphold the system of slavery.” 125
What did Justice Liu say about the majority holding in Rhoades?
Justice Liu dissented from the majority holding in Rhoades. 87 The Justice criticized the trial and appellate courts for “hypothesizing reasons for the removal of minority jurors.” 88 The Justice noted that “it has been more than 30 years” since the California Supreme Court had found Batson error against the use of a peremptory challenge against a black juror. 89 The Justice suggested two options to address the discriminatory use of peremptories: 90 first, the courts should not use “hypothesized reasons in first-stage Batson analysis;” 91 and second, to “essentially eliminate Batson ’s first stage.” 92 Excluding the first stage would require the party exercising the strike, if an objection is made, to provide “reasonably specific and clear race-neutral explanations for the strike.” 93 Eliminating the step will unmask intentional and implicit biases by requiring parties to base their challenges in concrete reasons focused on this potential juror’s service in this specific case. 94 Requiring such an explanation “would serve the important goals of promoting transparency, creating a record for appellate review, and ensuring public confidence in our justice system.” 95
What was the per curiam opinion in Purkett v. Elem?
Unexpectedly, a per curiam opinion in Purkett v. Elem changed these principles. 47 In that case, the prosecution used peremptory challenges against two black men. 48 The prosecution gave as “neutral reasons” that one juror had “long hair” that was “curly, unkempt.” 49 The juror also had a “mustache and a goatee type beard.” 50 The second juror also had a mustache and goatee type beard. 51 One of the two jurors had had a shotgun pointed at his face during a robbery. 52
Why is it impossible to exercise a peremptory strike that cannot be challenged by the opposing party?
Justice Thomas stated that because of Batson and its progeny , “it is impossible to exercise a peremptory strike that cannot be challenged by the opposing party.” 143 The Justice looked back to Strauder v. West Virginia, where the Court found unconstitutional a statute that prohibited blacks from serving on juries. 144 He also cited to Swain v. Alabama, where the Court held that individual peremptory challenges could not give rise to a Constitutional challenge. 145
What are the two types of challenges to the jury?
Jury selection throughout the United States allows two forms of challenges to ensure a fair trial: challenges for cause (sometimes known as challenges to the favor) and peremptory challenges. However, when peremptory challenges are “used to express stereotypical judgments about race, gender, religion, or national origin, ...
How does the court determine purposeful discrimination?
The court determines whether purposeful discrimination has been proven by a preponderance of the evidence by the objecting party. 24