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“Bad Juror” Lists

Posted by Seth Chazin | Dec 20, 2012 | 0 Comments

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.

About the Author

Seth Chazin

Seth P. Chazin has aggressively defended clients in thousands of felony and misdemeanor cases for over 30 years. He has extensive experience representing criminal defendants in federal and state court, while handling both state and federal appeals as well.

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ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

“The death penalty is a lie, a misguided mistake born of anger and frustration. Capital punishment has become a perverse monument to inequality, to how some lives matter and others do not. It is a violent example of how we protect and value the rich and abandon and devalue the poor. The death penalty is a grim, disturbing shadow formed by the legacy of racial apartheid and bias against the poor that condemns the disfavored among us, but corrupts us all. It’s the perverse symbol elected officials use to strengthen their ‘tough on crime’ reputations and distract us from confronting the causes of violence. It is finally the enemy of grace, redemption and all of us who recognize that each person is more than their worse act.”
- Bryan Stevenson

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