Jury Selection

• Author: Kenneth P. Nolan
• Pages: 69-75

Jury Selection

69

The room is cramped, barren, uninviting. There are no win-

dows and only one door. The floor is dirty, the chairs uncomfort-

able. The walls are painted, as we say in Brooklyn, puke green. No,

this is not an Afghan torture chamber; it is jury selection in state

court in New York City.

You, the great trial lawyer, will spend the next day or week with

your adversaries, trying to influence jurors into favoring your cli-

ent before they hear a word of testimony. Wait, did I say that? What

I mean, of course, is trying to select fair and impartial jurors.

Jury selection is a battle for the hearts and minds of triers of

fact—six or 12 ordinary citizens living ordinary lives and bother-

ing no one, until they received a hated jury summons in the mail.

Now they must travel to court, try to get excused, and, failing that,

wait around all day listening to lawyers talk sanctimoniously (and

hypocritically) about fairness, justice, and the American Way. Maybe

waterboarding is preferable.

But remember: Jurors decide whether you win or lose. Be care-

ful and do it right. Remember, if you don’t, you can fail, and in our

business, that means losing. By examining jurors’ reactions to you

and what you say, you may determine that the juror who swears he

can give your disabled client a fair shake is really thinking that he

has had it with those million-dollar verdicts and is going to fix this

system—right now! Or you uncover that the juror who promises to