ATTN Lawtalkers: Jury selection

[The Minsky Moment]

  In the US, you could get him struck for cause.

This.

[Ideologue]

Probably so, but it raises some questions for me.

Has any relatively recent political assassin ever faced a jury?  Like, say Jared Lee Loughner was not crazy, and instead held competent to stand trial, and did so.  Would a juror being a registered Democrat be sufficient to strike for cause?  How about if the juror just voted Democrat?  (I mean, I'm not a registered Democrat, but obviously I'd be biased as shit.)

For the prosecutor, what if the juror was or voted Republican, and thus may be more sympathetic to the idea of trepanning a Democratic congresswoman?

That is, do you need to find people that live under rocks to avoid a strike for cause due to political association?

[DontSayBanana]

That is, do you need to find people that live under rocks to avoid a strike for cause due to political association?

I'd assume they treat it like a celebrity case and focus on the ability of a juror to allow testimony and evidence to take precedence over their own exposure.  A quick search turned up some commentary from the DeLorean and O.J. Simpson trials on the topic of preventing jury contamination.

Delorean:
http://www.wcl.american.edu/journal/lawrev/40/takasugi.pdf?rd=1

Simpson:
http://www.varinsky.com/publications/publication_6.pdf

[Razgovory]

Probably so, but it raises some questions for me.

Has any relatively recent political assassin ever faced a jury?  Like, say Jared Lee Loughner was not crazy, and instead held competent to stand trial, and did so.  Would a juror being a registered Democrat be sufficient to strike for cause?  How about if the juror just voted Democrat?  (I mean, I'm not a registered Democrat, but obviously I'd be biased as shit.)

For the prosecutor, what if the juror was or voted Republican, and thus may be more sympathetic to the idea of trepanning a Democratic congresswoman?

That is, do you need to find people that live under rocks to avoid a strike for cause due to political association?

Wasn't there some local sheriff or rep who got assassinated a few years ago?

[Ideologue]

Well, there was the federal judge standing next to Gabrielle Giffords.  He's not a pretty lady with fine ideals who fucks a spaceman, so I didn't bother to remember his name.

[Ideologue]

That is, do you need to find people that live under rocks to avoid a strike for cause due to political association?

I'd assume they treat it like a celebrity case and focus on the ability of a juror to allow testimony and evidence to take precedence over their own exposure.  A quick search turned up some commentary from the DeLorean and O.J. Simpson trials on the topic of preventing jury contamination.

Delorean:
http://www.wcl.american.edu/journal/lawrev/40/takasugi.pdf?rd=1

Simpson:
http://www.varinsky.com/publications/publication_6.pdf

To make sure a fair and impartial jury is seated, however, the court would be
well-advised to authorize the use of pretrial juror questionnaires and individual, attorney-conducted voir
dire.

Yeah, I think they do that in NC as a matter of course.  I like it.

Anyway, a political killing or other crime is likely to involve the same concerns of media-sensation cases, but with the added wrinkle of tribal affiliation potentially trumping impartiality.  I'm saying that, in a politically charged case, if you're willing to strike for cause for formal party registration, you should be able to strike for cause for informal political allegiance; if I were Jared Lee Loughner, I'd want Tea Party fucksticks on my jury; if I were the prosecutor, I'd want Democrats.  And probably both should be stricken; the problem is if (as we say would be ideal) the entire population were politically engaged, in a two-party system, you may run into problems.

However, I expect there would be enough politically disengaged voters that you could find the under-rock people you need.

[Viking]

Probably so, but it raises some questions for me.

Has any relatively recent political assassin ever faced a jury?  Like, say Jared Lee Loughner was not crazy, and instead held competent to stand trial, and did so.  Would a juror being a registered Democrat be sufficient to strike for cause?  How about if the juror just voted Democrat?  (I mean, I'm not a registered Democrat, but obviously I'd be biased as shit.)

For the prosecutor, what if the juror was or voted Republican, and thus may be more sympathetic to the idea of trepanning a Democratic congresswoman?

That is, do you need to find people that live under rocks to avoid a strike for cause due to political association?

European political parties are more like a club like the elk lodge or freemasons. This is more like a parent of a recent Virginia Tech student sitting on the Jury for the VTech murderer or in the case of loughner a parent of a regular shopper at the safeways that gifforts and co. got shot at.

[Viking]

BTW, I just got an email from my local Conservative Party Chapter trying to get members to sign up for jury duty since they obviously can't meet their quota.