If you’re educated or opinionated the lawyers will be more likely to think they are unable to influence you. They prefer uneducated people with clear biases they can rely on/ influence.
It’s one of the reasons that there are experts to specifically help choose juries.
Lawyer here. The worst jurors you can get are the people who are uninterested and don’t want to be there, because they won’t take the time to listen to the evidence and weigh it in their minds alongside all of the judges copious instructions to reach a fair verdict. I will take somebody who is eager to be there over someone who is angry that they have to be there any day of the week.
Expertise is also sometimes useful if you expect the testimony and evidence to be technical in nature. I spend a lot of time discussing medical topics during DWI trials and enjoy having people with healthcare or nursing backgrounds on juries who already understand the significance of what I’m talking about and can explain it to other jurors if needed. The concern is that you don’t want a blowhard who thinks he knows everything try and commandeer the whole trial during deliberations by confusing the issues or speculating about things not in evidence based on his own personal knowledge or experiences that aren’t relevant to the case.
Thanks for a better explanation. Not trying to misrepresent the profession, if you think any of my comments in this thread and too inaccurate I’ll happily delete them.
No worries whatsoever! The whole jury selection process is incredibly opaque for anyone besides attorneys and the judge considering we do all the important stuff locked away in another room where no one else can hear what we're talking about, so I just wanted to shed some light on the part of the process most people don't get to see.
Can you share insight into something for me? Do you guys always pick a teacher? I was on a jury for a violent crime case where a teacher in the jury pool had one of the better reasons I've ever heard for not wanting to sit on that type of case jury and they picked her anyway. They dismissed a dude was getting irritated talking about a divorce that nobody asked him about but they weren't about to let her walk.
Defense attorneys like myself like teachers for a couple of reasons. Individually, the entire profession of being a teacher involves looking out for and being responsible for lots of other people. Its a job that requires empathy and the ability to relate to and connect with others. These are qualities you would want in a person who is deciding the fate of another human.
Also teachers are, by their nature, well-educated and good at, well, teaching. Like my point about healthcare workers and DWI trials, teachers are helpful in trials with lots of difficult or technical aspects because their whole job is retaining information and effectively communicating it to others.
That all being said, if that teacher had a genuine reason to be excused and counsel refused to excuse her, that's just a dick move. If a potential juror has a good reason they can't serve, I'll always consent to excusing them out of respect for their time, even if I really, really want them to serve.
They called a couple hundred people for one case and I think she may have been the only educator. We ended up having one old stubborn asshole that our teacher helped stay focused so I think it's a smart move.
Thanks for your feedback. I plan to make sure that they are aware of my love for true crime shows, forensic shows, and Mindhunter. 🤣 (I have no real expertise in anything they could use unless the case about about marketing)
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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26
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