Is it ethical (professionally) for lawyers to attempt to influence potential jury members during jury questioning?
I’ve seen situations where a lawyers questions to potential jurors sounded more like a speech than a question. I’m not talking about long-winded description of a situation or idea, rather things like “the law says …” and “we all know …”. Even the questions seemed slanted, like 'how would you act/feel in (defendant)'s situation?".
This occurs in the courtroom, in front of a judge, so I assume it’s legal. The judge sustain some objections about improper phrasing, so it didn’t seem to bother them.
Is this sort of thing actually acceptable in most courts? Or did they simply not bother about it for some other reason (too minor to bother with, not enough to win the case, etc.) It was for a criminal trial, if that makes a difference.