# Jury Selection Questionnaire... What the heck?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jury-selection-questionnaire-what-the-heck/252073>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 24, 2004, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jury-selection-questionnaire-what-the-heck/252073 "2004-06-24T20:09:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MinniePurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@MinniePurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MinniePurl)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jury-selection-questionnaire-what-the-heck/252073/1 "2004-06-24T20:09:02Z")

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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.

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**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jury-selection-questionnaire-what-the-heck/252073/2 "2004-06-24T20:17:10Z")

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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.

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**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\
**Post date:** [June 24, 2004, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jury-selection-questionnaire-what-the-heck/252073/3 "2004-06-24T22:29:36Z")

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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.