Welcome back to Come Back With A Warrant podcast. I'm Brandon Denitz. And I'm Monica Schack.
Before we kick-start this week's episode, this is your reminder that this podcast is not legal advice. It's real, unfiltered, and for entertainment purposes only. If you need to speak with a lawyer, call one. Or better yet, call us. Call us.
Welcome back to Come Back With A Warrant.
This week, we will be talking about jury selection.
The most common question I think we get is, "How do I get out of jury duty?" I've heard a lot of answers. A lot of bad answers, a lot of good answers. Getting out of jury duty is not what we are going to be telling people how to do.
Listen, I am oftentimes very empathetic to people's questions to me, as a defense attorney. But this is the one question that drives me up the wall, because we need jurors. That's right. We need good, fair jurors.
Not just people that want to be there. Exactly. Because those people are not great. No. We'll talk about that.
The pick-me is always the one that I'm like, "No, please. Go away." Yeah. Not you. The person that's raising their hand too much, not you. Yeah, exactly. There's always at least one person in the group that's like, "Pick me, pick me." Yeah. Who's excited to be here? That person raises their hand.
We'll talk about all these things, but the gist is that on today's episode, we're gonna be talking all about juries: jury duty, jury selection, being selected as a juror, being not selected as a juror, and the joy of the experience of jury duty.
We've been given suggestions right up until this episode of ways to get out of jury duty. But the truth of the matter is, we want people to go through jury duty. If it was more enjoyable, that would be great, but it's not.
However, the process of being a juror and becoming a juror is rewarding and is enjoyable, because oftentimes people are put on good juries and good jury panels, and you get to see something interesting.
It's important to talk about what the purpose and the role of the jury is, and for people to understand why it's so important, and why us as attorneys do not want people to be—
I mean, it is what it is. You're missing out on work. Your life is put on pause, whether it's for a day or for weeks, and I totally get that. And the $15 a day that they pay you is not comparable.
Or you're giving away the goods, Monica. You get paid $15 a day to be a juror—so don't give away the spoiler. Collect your money.
They also give you $15 for meal vouchers at the airport, just so you know. And you're not allowed to use those on alcohol. That's a caveat to anybody listening.
But going back to what we were talking about with jury selection and jury duty, the whole purpose is to find a panel of people that can listen objectively to the facts that are presented by lawyers, the law as it is presented by a judge, and render a verdict for a case that cannot be decided based on the negotiations of some lawyers.
That's pretty much the breakdown of what it means to be a jury. What we're looking for is reasonable, fair-minded people that can objectively look at the facts, even though they may not want to be there, but say, "Okay, I'm gonna give everybody that's participating in this a fair shot and listen to everything open and honest, without crazy personal bias or backstory coming into play, and give this person a fair trial."
That's all we ask for as lawyers: that you're reasonable, you listen, you're objective, you're fair, and you are the type of person that can speak with another group of people, come to a decision, make a decision.
For that reason, jury selection can be a long process. The judge has an opportunity to ask questions if they wish. Some judges will say, "Okay, can you be fair? Yes. Okay, lawyers, you can ask your questions." Others will have long voir dire, which is what we call jury selection, and then pass the ball to the government, then defense.
Throughout that process—especially in sensitive cases—jurors can get emotional. They'll ask to go sidebar and talk about their own experiences and why they cannot be fair. Sometimes it's people who have had close experience to something similar and they say, "I cannot be here. This is too triggering for me."
The whole point is to make sure we don't have people who are going to decide the case based off their own experience outside of the facts presented in the courtroom.
It's important to the government, but it's more important to the person who's being tried—whose liberty is at stake—that they get a fair trial from the jury perspective.
You're under oath when you're doing jury selection. You take an oath before answering questions that you will answer honestly.
I've had experience where it's been obvious people are not being honest, or people are sleeping during jury selection.
From the juror's perspective, here's the process. Jurors receive a summons. They show up to court. They go into a big room with a ton of people and are called out in groups that are predetermined by each individual court.
A jury can be picked for either a criminal trial or a civil trial. Criminal is where there's somebody's liberty at stake. Civil is finances—usually money—nobody's going to jail in a civil case.
The jury sizes and panels vary based on case type and complexity. For example, a DUI panel might be 20–30 people. A homicide panel can be over 100.
The group goes before the court. The judge asks standard questions. Lawyers ask their questions. And that's where jury selection becomes an art.
The way I was taught to do jury selection was actually deselection: who am I going to disqualify off this jury?
Each side is given challenges. Challenges allow a lawyer to strike a juror from the panel. There are tons of different reasons why jurors can get stricken, but there has to be a valid reason.
Sometimes challenges are contested. That’s where the lawful reasons matter, because it becomes strategic: who you keep and who you get rid of.
A standard example is law enforcement. Many defense attorneys don’t want law enforcement on the panel, so you investigate: how long, which department, do you know any officers in the case?
The other side may try to rehab that juror by asking if they can put that aside and decide only based on the facts. If they say yes, that’s being rehabilitated.
Body language can matter too. If you need the record to reflect it, you have to make it known.
People don’t realize how intricate jury selection can be. I’ve been a prosecutor sitting at the table with another attorney, and while I’m asking questions, that person is running criminal background checks on every single person in the panel, taking notes on every statement and body language tic.
High-stakes civil trials will have multiple lawyers analyzing jurors, running public-record checks, and even putting juror answers into AI software to predict who will be best for their side.
Having a second chair during jury selection is so important because it's hard to be present while also taking notes. Everyone uses the court’s juror chart. My questions and that chart are all I have up there. The second chair is taking the notes so later you can say, "This is what was said."
Jury selection is huge for high-profile cases because you need to know whether jurors have heard about the case and formed opinions. If a juror researches on their phone or brings in excluded information, that can create serious issues and lead to appeal.
It’s so important to show up and be honest, even if you don’t want to be there. Trials are expensive, and you can throw off the process by lying or being late. Courts are serious about holding jurors to their obligations, and jurors can be held in contempt—even jailed—for lying or not showing up.
During COVID and after, it became hard to get jurors. Panels got busted, not enough jurors would show up, and people were held in custody longer. It’s a trickle effect on the entire system.
If you have a legitimate conflict, courts will often excuse you—but you still have to show up and tell them.
Common attempts to get out of jury duty include pretending not to understand English, saying outlandish or racist things, or claiming work obligations. That can backfire badly. Everybody has work; everybody has somewhere else they’d rather be. But this civic duty is extremely important.
There are so many trials. I was sent a docket with over 60 cases set for trial in one courtroom. Not all will go, but that’s a lot of jury panels needed—and that’s just one courtroom.
One part I am sympathetic to is alternates. Before deliberations, the court tells someone, "You're the alternate, you’re going home, you won’t deliberate." If it’s a multi-week trial, that can feel brutal. But alternates are essential because life happens—people get sick, miss days, accidents happen.
And the alternate is often the most engaged person. And then it’s like, "We don’t actually need you." It does suck, but if people knew they were alternates, they wouldn’t pay attention.
I’ve been called for jury duty once. I told the judge I was a lawyer. Nope—still stayed all day, then they decided they didn’t want me because I was a lawyer.
I don’t prefer litigators on juries because they may fixate on objections and legal issues, but sometimes it makes sense because you want people who follow the law in a linear way.
This touches on jury nullification, which is a power jurors have but are not informed about. Jurors can decide not to follow the law, but defense attorneys can’t advocate for that.
Some attorneys speak to jurors after a case for feedback. I’ve even had jurors cold call me after finding me on the bar website to share what they thought, and it can be really helpful.
Another issue: sometimes jurors say unhinged things in open court. It can poison the entire panel and taint everyone against the defendant, and then the whole panel has to go. That happens.
Ultimately, jurors are needed. Show up. Be honest. You can affect someone’s livelihood, future, and liberty.
That wraps up today’s episode. If you’re liking this episode, check the show notes, like, follow, subscribe, Come Back With A Warrant dot pod on all platforms, and leave us a 5-star review.
And if you don’t like it… come back with a warrant.
