Christopher Carbuccia
November 18, 2019
Professor Olivia Wood
The topic I chose to write about is the process of selecting a jury. A jury is a group of people (usually 12) who have sworn to give a verdict (guilty or nonguilty) on a legal case based on evidence provided to them in a courtroom/ trial. My reason for choosing this topic was because I had always wondered if being a juror was like a real job when I was younger but I soon learned that random people were selected to go to something called “jury duty”. When being called on jury duty, I had learned that there are options of you being in a simple term “eliminated” from jury duty.
This is called a peremptory challenge. A peremptory challenge is the right to challenge a juror without having to state a reason. Jurors are replaced if the judge believes it is necessary and until a new juror is found, the trial doesn’t begin. The lawyers defending or that are against the person being trialed are typically allowed to challenge a member or in some cases “members” of the jury. Lawyers typically use this challenge as an advantage for them to win their cases, they are most likely to challenge a member of the jury just because of race. Although this is not fair, it is still done in many cases.
I also decided to research on the impacts of being a juror. Based on my research I read that there are more pros than cons when becoming a juror. The only pro would be getting paid and getting the day off from work, but based on what I’ve read you do not get paid much. Some of the cons of becoming a jury consisting of exposure to disturbing images, avoidance of doing things that would remind people of their time on the jury because of fear and unwanted thoughts, and the responsibility of sending some to jail or letting that person become free.
Based on my research so far, becoming a juror is a rough and irritating process and the benefit isn’t that great to many people. Race, gender, and ethnicity all play a valuable part in whether or not you will be chosen to become a juror during a specific trial or not. There are many attributes to becoming a juror and I know that if I wouldn’t enjoy being sent to jury duty. Do you think race and gender play a part in whether or not you can be a juror during a specific trial and would you like to be a juror in the future?
