Jury selection involves a number of issues, including procedures such as voir dire, the formal questioning of prospective jurors; whether attorneys or judges should conduct voir dire; challenges for cause; and peremptory challenges (which are not for cause). The fairness and effects of such procedures on the rights of parties and jurors are common issues. There have been many procedural changes to ensure fairness. For example, recent case law dictates that peremptory challenges must now be made for race- and gender-neutral reasons. The fundamental terminology describing jury selection procedures and practices varies. Work by the National Center for State Courts has determined that judges, lawyers, and court staff routinely use the same words and phrases—voir dire, jury selection, questioning, juror questionnaires—to describe widely disparate practices. Voir dire varies in the length of jury selection, in who conducts the questioning of prospective jurors, and in the frequency and use of peremptory challenges.
Moreover, there is a lack of consensus among legal professionals about the fundamental purpose of the jury selection process. Questions include whether jury selection serves to
- ensure that prospective jurors meet the statutory requirements for jury service;
- identify and remove individuals who cannot be fair and impartial;
- permit parties, through their attorneys, to exercise their peremptory challenges; or
- allow lawyers to begin to persuade jurors to adopt their theory of the trial.
Anecdotal reports, preliminary research, and observations of jury selection suggest that procedures also vary considerably from court to court, and even from judge to judge, across a number of dimensions. The details and parameters of these variations, however, remain largely unknown.
Whether jury selection can be considered the beginning of a jury trial, in that it offers lawyers their first chance to advocate for their parties in front of the jury, jury selection is one of the court’s first in-depth opportunities to ensure a fair trial in concert with the constitutional rights of all involved.
