r/nottheonion • u/ArgentineBeauty • 19h ago

Reese Witherspoon Chosen as Jury Foreman After Jurors Thought She Went to Law School Because of Legally Blonde

https://www.fashiontimes.co.uk/reese-witherspoon-jury-duty-mix-1763528
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u/matjoeman 18h ago

The lawyers are limited in how many people they can throw out and how much time they have for voir dire. I got on a jury when only being asked "will you hold it against the defendant if they don't testify" and I said "no". They didn't have time to ask me anything else.

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u/knotallmen 17h ago

I had something similar happen. It was long enough ago that there was a radio show Bill Handel on the Law which is now a podcast where people would just mention saying the listened to it as a code word for Jury nullification to get kicked off the jury without risking contempt of court, but by the time they got to me there wasn't any time left and I was made an alternate so I sat through the trial, took notes cause that's what I do, and never made a decision.

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u/grexl 17h ago

The numbers depend on jurisdiction, but yeah. I was on a jury in a criminal case involving an area of law that a relatively large proportion of the public has had some experience in.

Both counsels dismissed the maximum number of jurors allowed. Based on their questions it seemed like they were ranking us based on how much experience we had in that area. "How many of you have been involved with X?" Neither side asked questions toward me or anyone else who did not raise their hand.