Courtroom Cases

Would You Be Chosen to Serve on a Jury?

A death penal­ty statute has been enact­ed in your state. You have been sum­moned for jury duty in a death penal­ty case. In order to deter­mine whether you are qual­i­fied to serve on the jury, the judge will ask you about your views regard­ing the death penalty.

Question: If the defen­dant is found guilty of cap­i­tal mur­der, which makes him or her eli­gi­ble for a death sen­tence, what would you do?

Please read the five pos­si­ble answers care­ful­ly before choos­ing one. Click on the box to indi­cate which of the fol­low­ing views is clos­est to your own.

You would not be per­mit­ted to serve on a real jury.

Although there is noth­ing wrong with your reply that you would always vote for the death penal­ty, the law requires that a jury in a death penal­ty case be made up of peo­ple who are open to giv­ing a sen­tence oth­er than death in at least some cases.

You might not be per­mit­ted to serve on a real jury.

Although there is noth­ing wrong with your reply that you are uncer­tain of whether you could impose a life sen­tence, the defense attor­ney would prob­a­bly argue that since you lean towards the death penal­ty in all cas­es, you would not make a deci­sion on the facts but upon your per­son­al belief in the death penal­ty and you should be exclud­ed from the jury by the judge. On the oth­er hand, the pros­e­cu­tor in the case would like­ly argue that you would be able to decide the sen­tence by lis­ten­ing to both sides since you have not final­ly made up your mind. The pros­e­cu­tor would prob­a­bly want you includ­ed on the jury. Both the pros­e­cu­tor and the defense attor­ney would prob­a­bly ask you fur­ther ques­tions to see how deep your reser­va­tions about a life sentence go.

You would have a good chance at serv­ing on a jury.

Your answer indi­cates that you would like­ly be a per­son who would con­sid­er all the fac­tors regard­ing the sever­i­ty of the crime and the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the defen­dant before decid­ing on whether a death sen­tence is appro­pri­ate. This does not mean that your posi­tion is the ​“cor­rect” one, but only that you could serve as a juror in this spe­cial kind of case.

You might not be per­mit­ted to serve on a real jury. 
 

Although there is noth­ing wrong with your reply that you are uncer­tain of whether you could impose a death sen­tence, the pros­e­cu­tor in the case would like­ly argue that you would not be able to decide on the sen­tence by lis­ten­ing to both sides, but instead would be mak­ing your deci­sion based on your doubts about the death penal­ty. The pros­e­cu­tor would prob­a­bly want you exclud­ed from the jury by the judge. On the oth­er hand, the defense attor­ney would prob­a­bly argue that since you are not nec­es­sar­i­ly opposed to the death penal­ty in all cas­es, you could impose it in some cas­es, and you should be allowed to serve on the jury. Both the pros­e­cu­tor and the defense attor­ney would prob­a­bly ask you fur­ther ques­tions to see how deep your reser­va­tions about the death penalty go.

You would not be per­mit­ted to serve on a real jury. 
 

Although there is noth­ing wrong with your reply that you would nev­er vote for the death penal­ty, the law requires that a jury in a death penal­ty case be made up of peo­ple who are open to giv­ing a death sen­tence in at least some cases.