Donald Trump trial: why it took so long to select a jury and how the process is different to the UK

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From this, more than half were dismissed after they claimed they could not be impartial.

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Friday, April 19, 2024

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From this, more than half were dismissed after they claimed they could not be impartial.
On day three, one of the selected jurors asked to stand down after she became concerned about her name becoming public.
Lawyers for both the prosecution and defence will also ask additional questions of the prospective jurors.
In some cases, Trump’s lawyers had even looked through old social media posts as grounds to exclude a juror.

There are normally about 35 to 40 prospective jurors.
This process repeats until a group of about 14 (12 jurors and two alternative jurors) are selected.
Prospective jurors who have been summoned to the court are either questioned by the judge or by the prosecution and defence lawyers.
With jurors who favour guilty verdicts seeing prosecution evidence favourably and either distorting or ignoring the defence evidence – jurors who favour not guilty verdicts show the opposite pattern of results.
Therefore, some jurors will not be dismissed for cause despite being biased because they know how to answer in an acceptable way.

In comparison, jurors in England and Wales and Scotland are selected to be summoned randomly from the electoral register.
The court clerk (England and Wales) or clerk of court (Scotland) will then empanel (or select) the jury by randomly selecting names from a ballot.

Lee John Curley receives funding from the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust