Constitutional Law
Jan. 10, 2012
The good, the bad and the inconsistency: Peremptory challenges and their potential for abuse
Exactly what stereotypes can be used to eliminate jurors?
2nd Appellate District, Division 2
Brian M. Hoffstadt
Associate Justice, California Court of Appeal
UCLA School of Law, 1995
For centuries now, litigants in civil and criminal cases have had either a common-law or statutory (but not constitutional) right to excuse prospective jurors for any reason or no reason at all, "without inquiry and without being subject to the court's control." Swain v. Alabama, 380 U.S. 202, 220 (1965); California Civil Procedure Code Section 231; Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 24; 28 U.S.C. Section 1870. The unfettered and unsupervised nature of these peremptory challenges ...
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