The year before I
retired as a District Court Judge, I did a weekly blog on some of the
experiences I had during more than a quarter century on the trial court bench.[1] The following was my post on April 16, 2016:
Jury
selection is the first, and very possibly the most important part of a jury
trial. Prospective jurors are placed
under oath and the judge and attorneys ask questions to determine if they can
be fair and impartial in the trial.
This
process, called voire dire (to speak
the truth) seeks to eliminate potential jurors who have preconceived opinions
on how the trial should end up or has prejudices (conscious or subconscious)
which would prevent them from listening to the evidence and the judge’s
instructions on the law.
* *
* * *
In
one criminal case I tried, the defendant was Hispanic who did not speak English. Even today, there are people who are
prejudiced against people of color, so I needed to ask if there was anyone on
the jury panel who could not presume the defendant guilty simply because of his
race. One juror raised his hand, and
said he could not judge a Hispanic fairly and impartially. The juror had an Irish surname.
Naturally,
I dismissed the prospective juror from the panel. But before I did, I said, “It is really sad
that a person of our Irish heritage could be prejudiced against people coming
to this country to find a better life, as our ancestors were forced from their
native land because of a famine. When they
reached this land, they, too were discriminated against. Cartoons in papers depicted Irishmen as
baboons. Help wanted signs included ‘No
Irish Need Apply’. How is it that we
have forgotten the injustice of ignorant prejudice and become the bigots
ourselves?”
(I
must admit that the real words I used at the time were far less eloquent than
those above, but the sentiments were identical.)
The
vase majority of jurors summoned do their best to set aside any preconceived
notions of how the case should end and promise to listen to the evidence, apply
the law that the judge gives and give a fair an impartial verdict. THAT is the main reason why the American
system of Justice is the best in the world!
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