How exactly does the court choose who's on the jury?

[melnc]

And have you ever been on a jury before?

[Grgroup]

The court doesn't randomly select people and put them on a jury. The process generally begins with a pool of possible jurors who are selected from public records (voter registration lists, driver's license records, or other similar government databases depending on the country or state). Those people get a summons to a jury and appear in court. Then the judge and lawyers ask potential jurors questions. This is called "voir dire." They question to determine if the person can be fair and impartial. They might ask, for example, whether the person knows anyone connected with the case, has strong feelings about the kind of crime involved or has had experiences that might make it difficult to be fair. Either side may ask the judge to remove a juror “for cause” if there is a clear reason the juror could not be fair. They also have a limited number of peremptory challenges, which allow them to remove some jurors without giving a specific reason (but they can't use those to discriminate based on race, sex, or other protected characteristics). When there are enough qualified and unbiased people left, they are sworn in as the jury. So, the first pool is randomly selected, but the final jury is filtered through a screening process so that each side gets a fair trial.

[Chazmatazz269]

First and foremost, they excuse everyone who might have a genuine “hardship” resulting from serving on the jury. Usually the selection card return rules them out, and when it doesn’t, they are frequently rejected in the first round of jury selection.
Then they exclude everyone who is or was ever on the “wrong” side of the law. Then they eliminate everyone who might have a clearly defined bias in the given case. More often than not, jury selection favors the prosecution. This is partly why defendants get appeals, but the law limits prosecutions with “double jeopardy” restrictions.

[Calyptomaniac]

I was on the jury the first time I ever had jury duty, and I asked this. Basically they kinda randomly number you and start at 1 with all their questions and see if you have any biases and each side has a number of times they can eliminate someone with or without bias and once they either both agree not to exclude 12 or run out of dismissals, you have your 12.

[Agape93]

The defense lawyer and prosecutor sit in a room with a judge and the prospective jurors. They ask the jurors questions and either keep or strike them based on answers given.

[DryGermanGuy]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't jury selection started with 24 jurors in the room and each side gets to strike six jurors, or something like that?

[Agape93]

Something like that

[IndianPhotoAcademy]

Courts don’t choose jurors. They begin with a random pool of eligible citizens. Then the judge and lawyers ask questions in a process called "voir dire" to see if anyone might be biased. The two sides can ask that some people be stricken. The rest of the people, who are qualified and impartial, make up the jury.

[Pterodon]

Both prosecution and defense attorneys will ask you a few questions about your views on things at a state trial. Either attorney can accept or deny you but each side has a limited number of denials they can use. I don’t remember how many. In a federal trial they have you tell a little about yourself and again either attorney can accept or deny you but you won’t know who denied you

[Nikki1989]

Randomly. I have been asked 4 times in the past year. I just tell them, 'Sorry, I am busy.'

[EmmaMary]

That's very interesting indeed, for here in the UK it is a legal requirement that you attend.

In extreme circumstances the court can even issue a warrant for your arrest.

However in certain situations you can request to have your service deferred to a later date, or be excused entirely if you have valid, exceptional circumstances.

[dudeinohio]

I've been on jury duty several times. The prosecutor and defense attorney each ask candidates questions and make a determination on who to disqualify.