The Role of the Jury

For a criminal trial, a jury is a group of 12 people who listen to the trial, examine the evidence, and follow the judge’s instructions about the law. Usually, to be eligible for jury duty, an individual: Must be a Canadian citizen 18 years of age or older, Be a resident of the province for at least a year. Publicly elected officials and those working in the justice system cannot serve as jurors. Possible reasons a person may be exempted from jury duty: A) Religious or health issues B) Financial hardship C) If you have already served on a jury in the past 2 years. Wishing to be exempt from jury duty involves making application to the Sheriff

Jury Selection Potential jurors are selected randomly from electoral polling lists. A group of potential jurors is called a jury panel. The accused is brought in front of the judge and jury panel for an arraignment to plead guilty or not guilty. If they plead not guilty, the crown and defence attorneys will select jurors from the panel under the judge’s supervision. There are six steps in selecting the jury

Jury Selection CONT…   Names of people are written on cards and randomly selected out of the box, they are read aloud to the court. The person chosen goes in front of the court. Both crown and defence may object to a potential juror by challenging the individual. Either counsel may challenge for cause if they believe the prospective juror has: Already formed an opinion about the case Physically unfit to serve juror duty. Has been convicted of a serious offence. Each side has an unlimited number of challenges for cause.

Jury Selection CONT… 6. After the juror is selected as a potential candidate, both side can reject this person by using a peremptory challenge. This does not require a reason for rejecting a juror. In more serious cases, each side gets 20 peremptory challenges, in less serious cases in which the sentence is more than 5 years in prison 12 challenges are allowed and in cases where the sentence is less than 5 years 4 challenges are allowed. 7. After the jury is selected, all jurors take an oath.

The members of the jury take the juror’s oath, choose a foreperson from among themselves and then the trial begins. At the end of the trial, jurors withdraw to the jury room to deliberate in secret, consider all the evidence, and decide together whether the accused is guilty or not guilty. Their verdict must be unanimous otherwise it is referred to as a hung jury and a new jury is selected and the case is tried again.