Hidden biases or issues in a juror's past—such as racial biases, gender biases, or personal experience with the type of crime charged—that would substantially affect their ability to be fair and impartial.
“In a criminal trial, either at a misdemeanor or felony level every single trial that you have that is put before a jury, you are allowed to question the jurors to see whether they are a good fit to sit on the jury panel. What happens during this process is both the DAs and the defense attorneys get to ask questions of the jurors to see whether or not they have any hidden biases, not even hidden, but any issues in their past that would substantially affect their ability to be fair and impartial jurors.”
“For example, let's say that you have someone who, one of their family members was hit in a drunk driving accident and killed, and it happened very recently and they are having a lot of emotional reactions to that. Now if you're there and you're having a DUI trial, where you have for example, if my client has been accused of driving while under the influence of alcohol, I'm not gonna want someone who, number one, just for the sake of being humane, you don't want to put someone through that process and make them hear all this when it's so fresh and raw in their minds. The other thing is, you don't want someone sitting on your jury who's not gonna be able to see the actual facts of this specific case.”
“During the voir dire process, what happens is the DA gets to get up and question jurors about their background, about their history, about things they may know about the case, anything that they want to question on that's relevant to this case, to see whether or not they have any issues that come up where they think that the juror either is good or bad for their side. Then the defense gets to do that. A lot of the times, what I'll do is, I'll tailor specifically to whether someone has a specific motive or bias, potentially against my client. Unfortunately, a lot of times things come up where you need to make sure people don't have any racial biases, make sure people don't have any gender biases, and you also have to see if they have any personal experience with the type of crime that's charged, to see whether or not that's gonna have an impact on their deliberations.”
Alexis explains: "During the voir dire process, what happens is the DA gets to get up and question jurors about their background, about their history, about things they may know about the case, anything that they want to question on that's relevant to this case, to see whether or not they have any issues that come up where they think that the juror either is good or bad for their side. Then the defense gets to do that. A lot of the times, what I'll do is, I'll tailor specifically to whether someone has a specific motive or bias, potentially against my client. Unfortunately, a lot of times things come up where you need to make sure people don't have any racial biases, make sure people don't have any gender biases, and you also have to see if they have any personal experience with the type of crime that's charged, to see whether or not that's gonna have an impact on their deliberations."
Answered by Alexis Austin Litle · Watch clip ↗Alexis explains: "In a criminal trial, either at a misdemeanor or felony level every single trial that you have that is put before a jury, you are allowed to question the jurors to see whether they are a good fit to sit on the jury panel. What happens during this process is both the DAs and the defense attorneys get to ask questions of the jurors to see whether or not they have any hidden biases, not even hidden, but any issues in their past that would substantially affect their ability to be fair and impartial jurors."
Answered by Alexis Austin Litle · Watch clip ↗Each answer links directly to the source where a Right Law Group attorney addressed this question.
2 answers grounded in Right Law Group sources
a DUI case
knows the law and helps represent you to the best of their ability
helped me get a DUI case dismissed in El Paso county
pulled over in Manitou Springs and accused of a DUI… even though I was completely sober!
They took the time to hear me out, review every detail of my case, and make sure I was never left in the dark
Dismissed at the DMV hearing, and dismissed in court