POLS 4720 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Jury Trial, Voir Dire, Miranda Warning
5 May 2018
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-When you are in custody and the police question you without reading your Miranda
rights, your statements cannot be used in court. However, because the detective read you
your rights again and you repeated the incriminating statements, any statement you made
after the reading of Miranda rights can be used in court.
9. Joe Smith is on trial for murder. He is an African-American man who is 19 years old and a
college student at the local college. The trial is held during finals for the local college and the
judge has excused any member of the venire whose final exams or end of the semester projects
would be affected. During the voire dire , the prosecution uses peremptory strikes to exclude
two African-American males in their 20s and one white male in his 20s. The prosecution does
not use any other peremptory strikes. The jury includes two African-American females and 10
non-African-American members of different ethnicities. The youngest member of the jury is 40
years old. Explain the requirement that the jury has to be a fair cross section of the community
and what the standard is for showing that the fair cross section requirement has been violated. If
the defense wanted to challenge the peremptory strikes as being biased, can they use race as a
reason? Can they use age as a reason? Explain the case(s) and the standard that explain
challenges to peremptory strikes as well as the process of determining if the strikes are
unconstitutional. (note: there are two different issues here: the requirement for a fair cross
section of the community in the venire and the biased use of peremptory strikes).
-The Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment guarantees the requirement of an impartial jury
and a fair cross section of the population. In the case of Duncan v Louisiana, the Court
held that the fair cross section requirement is fundamental to the jury trial guaranteed by
the Sixth Amendment. The jury must be a representative cross section of the community
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Document Summary
When you are in custody and the police question you without reading your miranda rights, your statements cannot be used in court. However, because the detective read you your rights again and you repeated the incriminating statements, any statement you made after the reading of miranda rights can be used in court: joe smith is on trial for murder. He is an african-american man who is 19 years old and a college student at the local college. The trial is held during finals for the local college and the judge has excused any member of the venire whose final exams or end of the semester projects would be affected. During the voire dire , the prosecution uses peremptory strikes to exclude two african-american males in their 20s and one white male in his 20s. The prosecution does not use any other peremptory strikes. The jury includes two african-american females and 10 non-african-american members of different ethnicities.
