Judicial Survey Questions

FDS Q57: Please describe your jury selection process.

FDS A57: Voir dire questions asked by the court to the entire panel; prospective jurors raise their hands as appropriate and are examined one-by-one at sidebar. The court strikes jurors for cause as appropriate. Once voir dire is completed, if twelve jurors and two alternates are to be empaneled, the first fourteen names remaining on the list will be called and those prospective jurors seated in the jury box. The court then conducts a limited further inquiry to obtain missing information and find out about prior jury service. Peremptory challenges are then exercised at sidebar, one by one, in alternating rounds (for example, the government or plaintiff goes first in the first round, the defendant goes first in the second round, etc.). No back strikes are permitted. In criminal cases with fourteen jurors, the last two jurors seated are the alternates, regardless of their seat numbers. They are not advised that they are alternates until immediately before deliberation.

Related Topics:
* Saylor, F. Dennis IV

United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts