Jury Selection & The Media
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One of the most critical factors in assuring that a criminal defendant receives a “fair and impartial” trial heard by a “fair and impartial” jury is the voir dire process. The voir dire process represents a questioning process during which potential jurors are questioned by attorneys for each side and/or the trial judge. Potential jurors are asked a variety of questions about their life experiences, their background, and their opinions to make the determination of whether or not they can judge the evidence in a fair and impartial manner. Jurors can be corrupted in a variety of ways. Prejudice, prior experience with a similar crime, or media exposure about the case can all corrupt potential jurors, making it impossible for them to weigh evidence in a fair and objective way. The media can play a powerful influence in forming the opinions of potential jurors. As such, any potential juror saturated by one-sided media publicity about a trial is unlikely to render a fair and impartial decision. Jurors must make a decision of guilt or innocence based only on evidence presented at trial. Nevertheless, media publicity has often influenced the attitudes and opinions of jurors toward the defendant and/or the crime allegedly committed by him or her. Dixon and Linz (2002) conducted a two-year meta-analysis of Los Angeles media and found with respect to a number of cases during that period that 12,000 defendants per year are as
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1018
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page)
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