Jury Selection In The Anna Nicole Smith Felony Drug Trial August 2010

Jury Selection

From links offered to the site (and I thank you guys very much) it looks like we have yet another mystery on our hands. One link says 60 jurors were processed today and it appears that a whole new batch will be seen tomorrow. Another says 52. Out of those 52 to 60 all writers agree that not many were selected to serve today although they don’t offer a number.

Jury selection is a big business in the world of law. Of course that’s how former FBI bureau chief Don Clark came to work for late billionaire attorney John O’Quinn. He was a jury consultant. O’Quinn was Virgie Arthur’s attorney until Stern sued O’Quinn for defamation in Florida. Attorney Neil McCabe now takes care of Mrs. Arthur.

California law says that the judge will first eliminate all persons who it appears would face undue hardship if they had to serve on the jury. For whoever is left, the judge conducts the initial examination and then the lawyers get their turn. This part of the process is called “voir dire”. The attorneys receive a limited amount of time that they can question candidates. Complex cases can take over one half hour for both the prosecution and the defense.

When that part is over, the parties are allowed to request that a juror be excused for “cause”. For-cause challenges are done with jurors who are sitting in the jury box. For-cause challenges are distinguished from peremptory challenges because “for-cause” means there has to be a specific reason for the juror to be excused. For peremptory challenges, no reason has to be stated but both sides are limited to 10 of those challenges for the purposes of this particular case.

To read more in depth about how the process works, check out, this page.