Does The Type Of Crime Affect How The Criminal Defense Attorney Picks A Jury?

Bail Bond Cowboys wants the public to have answers to the myriad of questions that surround the criminal justice system and your constitutional rights. We bring those answers to you in the form of video interviews by Attorneys.Media of legal experts in your area and across the country.

Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media

“Now the question that I must pose is…when you are picking a jury, everybody uses that phrase, do you want…well, let me just ask the general question. What do you want?”

Andrew Dósa – Criminal Defense Attorney – Alameda County, CA

“The case will drive the type of jury you are looking for.”

Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media

“Ok. The case will drive the type of jury you are looking for.”

Andrew Dósa – Criminal Defense Attorney – Alameda County, CA

“Correct. For example, if you have a case involving embezzlement, you wouldn’t want to have someone like an accountant, you wouldn’t want to have someone who’s a financial officer of a company. I know there are racial issues that come into play, but there are people with certain temperaments and characteristics, beyond race, that you would be identifying. Someone who thinks a little bit more in terms of ‘how things should be’. They don’t fit into a box, they are a very effective and very good administrators. They may not be as sympathetic because they’re going ‘hey, there are patterns of behavior that are acceptable and unacceptable’.

At the same time, I don’t know if there would be a good juror for somebody who was embezzling, unless they were basically an outlaw and said ‘I don’t feel sympathy for any large corporation. If they lose their money, they lose their money…not my problem’. Let’s use an example. The question is ‘who’s your jury if you have a DUI?’ Would you want someone who is a drinker or a non-drinker?”

Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media

“Or somebody who is a recovering alcoholic?”

Andrew Dósa – Criminal Defense Attorney – Alameda County, CA

“Correct. So, what is their relationship to alcohol? What kind of job do they do? The general thought would be someone like an accountant would be less sympathetic. They may be perceived a more rigid, which is not always true. You would try to identify personal characteristics of your juror and see if that person might be amenable to you and the persuasions that you offer.”

Ray Hrdlicka – Host – Attorneys.Media

“That’s the personality aspect versus the similarity to the lifestyle. For instance, going back to the embezzlement example. If an accountant has been charged with embezzlement, you said you wouldn’t want another accountant on there, but that truly is a ‘peer’. In this particular case you wouldn’t want that very specific peer on the jury.”

Andrew Dósa – Criminal Defense Attorney – Alameda County, CA

“I will offer this, depending upon my defense, if I was arguing that my client was being set up to take a fall by somebody in the company, and you had somebody who was an accountant and had worked for a company, and felt like they had not been treated fairly, they might be sympathetic. Because they would know how hard it was for them to do their work with the pressure that was brought to bear by their company.”