Courtroom

Obtaining “Bad Juror” lists that are produced by prosecutor offices.

A little known practice of many prosecutor offices is the use of “bad juror” lists to exclude particular citizens from jury service. The individuals on this list have been identified by the prosecutors as bad jurors for a variety of reasons.

For example, a District Attorney's office in Texas is believed to use a bad juror list to strike jurors who are against the death penalty. This practice not only interferes with an open and fair jury selection process, but also violates potential jurors' rights to serve in this important capacity.

The biggest problem is that a defendant's right to be tried by a fair cross-section of the general public is diminished. One method of combating this practice is to demand the disclosure of these lists through discovery.  Ira P.

Ira P. Robbins offers an interesting perspective on the defense's right to these lists in his recent article in the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy.