Introduction

• Library: Mastering Voir Dire and Jury Selection: Gain an Edge in Questioning and Selecting Your Jury (ABA) (2018 Ed.)

The voir dire and jury selection process is one of the most challenging aspects of a jury trial. It is at this time that lawyers must identify and remove potential jurors who harbor some bias or hold beliefs that would make them less beneficial than others. Success in jury selection requires lawyers to draw upon a number of basic skills. These skills include the ability to:

operate effectively within the jury selection system in the trial jurisdiction;
attain the major goals of voir dire (i.e., information gathering, rapport, education, and persuasion);
identify critical opinions, biases, and experiences of jurors that can influence their decisions;
encourage jurors to reveal important information about themselves;
utilize the information about their opinions and feelings that potential jurors communicate through their nonverbal behavior;
develop and ask the questions on voir dire necessary to uncover desired information;
employ methods for handling common situations and problems (e.g., reluctant jurors, difficult jurors, stealth jurors, negative spirals, and pretrial publicity) that arise during voir dire;
capitalize on the information available through the use of juror questionnaires;
effectively utilize information available on jurors through Internet sources and minimize potential threats to jury trials posed by the Internet;
operate effectively in courts-martial member selections; and
exercise peremptory challenges and challenges for cause in a manner that removes the least desirable potential jurors.

The goal of this book is to promote the skills needed to be successful in the area of voir dire and jury selection. It is through the sharpening of these skills that lawyers take a major step in improving the chances of a favorable verdict at trial.

We begin our consideration of voir dire and jury selection in Chapter 1 by examining the voir dire situation. What are the major goals of voir dire? In what ways do jurisdictions differ in how voir dire and jury selection are conducted? What is the impact of these differences on how lawyers should approach jury selection?

Chapter 2 examines the story model as a model for juror decision making and the importance of what jurors bring with them to court—the opinions, biases, and experiences that shape how they view and relate to the world around them. We consider the pitfalls of stereotypes and how to evaluate jurors' backgrounds and experiences, including a discussion of whether there really is a "CSI Effect." To more fully understand jurors' viewpoints, we explore the importance of global opinions, i.e., authoritarianism and beliefs in equity; case-specific opinions, i.e., opinions and attitudes that relate to the circumstances and issues in...