I had jury duty yesterday. As luck would have it, the trial I got assigned to got called off before jury selection, but not before I filled out a Questionnaire. For some of the questions, I can see the relevance, like “Have you or a close relative been the victim of a crime?” But why do they want to know things like how many children you have, and how old? And why on earth to they want to know your favorite TV programs, favorite kind of music, and favorite things to read? How to they use this in jury selection? “Look, this one watches ‘America’s Test Kitchen’. That’s no good, we have to get rid of her!” “This one likes They Might Be Giants, so we really want her on our jury!” I’m kinda baffled.
To help the lawyers pick/strike the jurors that have the most common with the defendant. My lawyer would want people on my jury that were in my demographic and shared common interests because they may be sympathetic. The prosecutor would want the exact opposite.
If you have a sociology professor in Birkenstocks who likes to read Mother Jones or a college student that likes to read High Times, the prosecution might come to the conclusion that they aren’t going to be favorable jurors. If you have a retired colonel who only reads Reader’s Digest and the Holy Bible and who only likes Sousa marches, the defense might want to strike him.