Criminal Jury Selection: 3 Types of Jurors To Avoid

A criminal lawyer must know which potential jurors who would do the most harm to his client. The number one goal a criminal lawyer must have in jury selection is identifying and eliminating the jurors who would be bad for the defense. There are many types of jurors that can hurt you depending on the type of case you are going to trial on , but the following three groups must always be eliminated from the jury pool.

1. Guilty verdict jurors. Identify all jurors who have previously sat on jurors before and convicted the defendant. If a Juror has convicted a defendant in a previous trial then they are more likely to do it again. Who knows what they were told by the prosecutor after the first trial. Jurors will use there prior jury experience and other juror will look to them as experts.

2. Crime victims. Identify jurors who have been victims of crimes or are family members of victims of crimes. This is particularly true if you are representing a client charged with a violent crime and the juror has been a violent crime victim. They may say they can be fair but it goes against humane nature. Pay backs are hell and jurors who have been victims in the past will more likely convict.

3.Law enforcement jurors. Identify jurors who are currently in or have in the past been in law enforcement. This doesn’t just include police officers. Determine if there are jurors who have worked in the District Attorney’s office or any support group of law enforcement such as victims rights groups. In a criminal case these types of jurors have had to much experience with criminal defendants and will convict no matter how fair they say they will be.