In jury trials, is there any provision for dismissing obviously incompetent jurors once the trial has started? For example, say it’s obvious that the juror is not paying attention in court – he’s staring off into space, or even dozing off. Could a lawyer or judge request or demand that he be dismissed and replaced with an alternate?
How about if a juror is suspected by the court or by other jurors of becoming mentally ill during the trial? Say the trial is exceedingly long, and a juror with no prior history of mental illness begins showing early signs of schizophrenia, but refuses to see a doctor? Can the court dismiss him on mere suspicion of insanity? If not, can the court order that he undergo a psychiatric examination to determine his fitness?
I realize that answers will vary with jurisdiction, but I’m interested regardless.
Yes. Dismissal of a juror is generally a matter within the sound discretion of the trial court.
As long as there is the ability to replace the juror with an alternate, there’s unlikely to be an appealable issue; the appellate court will defer to the trial court’s exercise of discretion unless there is absolutely nothing on the record that supports the court’s decision.
Now, things may get a little more sticky if the juror’s dismissal would leave the venire with less than the statutorily-required number of jurors. Both sides would then be asked to waive the minimum number requirement. If they didn’t, then the result would be a mistrial. If the state wished to retry the case, the defense would undoubtedly point out that jeopardy had attached, and argue that there was no “manifest necessity” in the juror’s dismissal. That argument would be reviewed by the appellate court with a much sharper eye than the “abuse of discretion” standard that I mention above for replacement of a juror by an alternate.
The Judge could certainly dismiss him (though with the complications already discussed if there are no alternates left). But the Judge could also charge him (“contempt of court”, I think) and assess a fine or even jail time! At the least, he’s likely to get a severe dressing down from the Judge.
Judges take being in Court quite seriously, and don’t react kindly to anyone who makes light of it.
In light of this, is there a dress code for jurors? Can a juror show up in shorts and a T-shirt? How about jeans and a wifebeater? A studded leather jacket and neon pink mohawk? Can a judge find you in contempt of court simply because he doesn’t like the way you’re dressed?
In Federal District court, at least, there’s no dress code per se for jurors. At least if there is, we were never told about it. OTOH, none of us pushed it at all. I was as casually dressed as anyone, wearing rumpled khakis and a polo shirt.
There was the celebrated Star Trek juror in some big media-frenzy case a few years ago. She showed up for jury duty every day wearing a TNG-style red uniform. The judge didn’t make one peep about it until she talked to reporters about it, then she was dismissed.
Here is an interesting spin on this fact pattern: Criminal trial. Jury is selected, pool is released. Immediately after the juror pool is released, one juror notifies the court that she has a medical appointment that day; another juror reveals that he did not get enough sleep the night before. The judge, with the consent of the parties, dismisses the two jurors and the parties select replacements. Trial proceeds. Defendant is convicted. What result?
Great federal case that discusses the standards for removing an incompetent jury, and the complications arising from a continue trial: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=1st&navby=case&no=951139. Juror X was removed because he had become “mentally unstable.” Delibertation were disrupted by constant interruptions by “juror X”, irrelevant statements by juror X about events in his past life, and juror X’s efforts to show other jurors written materials consisting of a campaign brochure and a newspaper clipping from his prior efforts to win elective office. :eek: The court dismissed the juror and denied a defense motion for a mistrial, and tried the case before the remaining 11 jurors. The conviction was affirmed on appeal despite multiple legal challenges. It’s a pretty good read.
On a related note, I’ve heard people say that were they to be summoned to appear on a jury for a criminal trial, they would tell the court: “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. People accused of X should be punished with stiff jail sentences.”
This doesn’t strike me as contempt of court. I wonder if such a statement would get a person permanently stricken from the eligibility pool?
Here in Hennepin County, MN, the Jury Assembly Room is also used for a lot of group meetings in the evening, and I’ve been there many times. They have a handout they give to Jurors about ‘A Juror’s place in Court’. It talks about a lot of stuff, including a section on ‘appropriate dress’. As well as info on tardyness, calling in sick, bathroom breaks, coffee/pop in the Courtroom (no!), outside reading material in the Courtroom (no!), cell phones (leave with bailiff), etc.
Also, the Judges here have taken a hard line against people who they think are deliberately trying to skip out of jury duty.
If you show up dressed inappropriately, they will send you home to change & come back, with a tight time limit. And then they will dock you for the time you’re gone. If you take too long or don’t come back, they will tell you that you have to stay on jury duty longer to make up for the missed day. Except that jury duty goes by the week, so you will actually be kept a full week longer.
If a juror makes statements like Carnac mentioned, and the Judge thinks they are acting prejudiced just to get out of jury duty, they will indeed remove them from the criminal jury pool. But they will send them over to serve as a juror in a civil case, like a bankruptcy claim or tax dispute or accounting fraud – something long & boring & utterly uninteresting.
Many year ago I was in court for urinating at the side of a road at 6 a.m with no public toilet within miles. Before hearing my case the magistrate called out 2 friends who were watching proceedings. Since it was summer in a holiday spot they were wearing the best clothes they had with them, those they would wear for a big night out at the club. Because these revealed a little midriff he went into a rant about their morals, the inappropriateness of their outfits, how they had shamed their families, on and on. He allowed that since they obviously came from bad backgrounds they obviously knew no better so he would not charge them with contempt of court. Going by the attitudes of my friends that were there it was lucky he didn’t have to forgive someone assault charges.
I’ve been called for jury duty a few times (but never ended up serving.) Here in casual California, a T-shirt and shorts would be acceptable. If the T-shirt had a “Fuck the Judge” logo on it, that would probably cross the line.