From: Michael Wiik (mwiik@messagenet.com)
Date: Wed Jul 31 2002 - 10:28:47 MDT
> There is no right to serve on a jury just because one
> wants to. In the case where the defendant doesn't want a particular
> juror, we err on the side of dismissing the juror.
I don't have much experience here, having only a single experience
actually witnessing jury selection in a real court, but my concern was
that the *prosecution* was dismissing any and all jurors that might have
*helped* my friend (the one on trial).
To me it seemed that prosecutors pretty much automatically requested to
dismiss any potential juror who was a lawyer or had any legal education
or skills whatsoever. Even a secretary who worked in a law office was
dismissed.
I thought it was a filter for anyone who might bring up ideas like those
on fija.org.
I considered the idea of a potential juror to be biased *against the
defendent* much less of a possibility. Not to say such prejudices exist,
but this was a metropolitan multi-ethnic tolerent place anyway, thus any
juror who even mentioned such prejudices during jury deliberations would
be quickly and immediately considered by the others to not have much of
value to say.
-Mike
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