Blog 12- Jury Duty

For every case there is a group of people called a jury. The jury has to watch the trial. They have to carefully consider evidence and then deliberate with the other jurors. In a criminal trial when the jury has to come up with the verdict and it has to be a unanimous vote. Meaning they all agree that the defendant is either guilty or not guilty.

The jurors are selected randomly but there are a few qualifications in order to be a juror. You must be at least eighteen years old. You must know how to read and write. You must be a citizen of the state and resident of the county or city that you are serving as a juror in. You also cannot have ever been convicted for any crime.

On the day of the trial, everyone who was sent a notice that they must serve as a juror has to attend the court. Before the trial starts there is a jury selection. The defense and the prosecution asks the jurors questions. This question and answer process is called “voir dire.” The prosecution and defense can choose who will be on the jury depending on the answers given.

A lot of times the original people called for jury duty can be excused. If you know someone involved in the trial or the judge you can be excused. You can be excused if you have a job that you can’t get out of or a family that’s needs you to take care of. Another reason a lot of people are excused from jury duty is because they are bias. If someone has made up their mind about the case before they hear both sides and see the evidence then they can be excused because they might be bias.

When you are on a jury you are required to have no bias. This means thatyou cannot judge people and you have to be fair. You also cannot talk about the trial you are serving on. You can’t read any newspaper articles about the case. You can’t watch any television that relates to or talks about your case. All of this could influence you to believe a certain side. You must be influenced just by the case and evidence presented to you in court. Once the trial is over your main job just gets started. You will look back at notes taken during the trial and you with have jury deliberations. When you deliberate with the other jurors you will all talk and come up with one vote. The jury has to come up with a unanimous vote so it may take awhile to come out with a verdict. Even if just one juror disagrees with the rest, the deliberation will go on and the other jurors will have to try and convince that one person of their side.

Having U.S. citizen serve jury duty has helped courts have a non bias verdict. There are many other places across the world that have jury duty and hopefully many more will soon.