Deck 7: Jury Selection

Question 1

According to the text, which statement about jury selection and service is FALSE?

A) It is rare for more than two jurors to leave a jury once it has been selected.
B) Persons who have ever been convicted of certain crimes are excluded from jury service.
C) There are two types of challenges to a potential juror that lawyers may use.
D) Potential jurors must be residents of the jurisdiction in which the crime was committed.

Answer 1

Persons who have ever been convicted of certain crimes are excluded from jury service.

Question 2

Which is NOT one of the three court personnel sitting closest to the judge?

A) Court Services Officer
B) Court Reporter
C) Court Clerk
D) Court Registrar

Answer 2

Court Clerk

Question 3

Which is NOT a finding from some data collected on failure to show for jury service:

A) Enforcing fines for non-attendance may be an effective deterrent to no shows.
B) The average rate of failures to appear in the U.S. is about 20%.
C) In Ontario, one study indicated failure-to-appear rates varied from 11-21%.
D) Newfoundland and Nova Scotia had the lowest absentee rates of jurisdictions that keep track.

Answer 3

Newfoundland and Nova Scotia had the lowest absentee rates of jurisdictions that keep track.

Question 4

The Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Grant Krieger because:

A) they deemed the marijuana law to be unconstitutional as written in the Criminal Code.
B) exigent medical circumstances existed that were not shared by the prosecution.
C) the trial judge had usurped the jury's function by telling them to render a guilty verdict.
D) jurors were tampered with by the prosecution and had to be excused.

Question 5

Which statement about the jury selection process is FALSE?

A) Provinces and territories use the same set of rules and statutes, controlled by the Jury Act.
B) Basic requirements are that jurors must be 18 years of age and Canadian citizens.
C) Some specific occupations may be exempt and some persons excluded from jury service.
D) Jury assembly includes both pretrial out-of-court and in-court selection processes.

Question 6

Assault, solicitation of prostitution and disturbing the peace are all examples of ___ offences:

A) summary
B) misdemeanor
C) indictable
D) hybrid

Question 7

The peremptory challenge is said to be more powerful than the challenge for cause because:

A) so few are ever granted by the judge.
B) there are only a limited amount available to each side of a case.
C) no reason has to be given for the move to dismiss the juror.
D) they have been found to be directly related to the outcome of a case.

Question 8

The question of whether jurors who identify strongly with a certain defendant and empathize with his or her situation will be less likely to fault or convict them is called the:

A) compassionate-acquittal hypothesis.
B) similarity-leniency hypothesis.
C) empathy-nullification hypothesis.
D) identification-liberation hypothesis.

Question 9

The level of proof that an attorney must meet in order to be granted a challenge for cause is:

A) reasonable doubt.
B) realistic potential.
C) marked certainty.
D) beyond doubt.

Question 10

Which statement about the trial of Robert Latimer for killing his disabled daughter is FALSE?

A) The Appeals Court upheld the lower court, saying an exemption fit the mercy killing scenario.
B) The jury recommended 1 year to parole, asking for an exemption from the mandatory minimum 10 years.
C) The trial judge granted a mandatory minimum exemption with a sentence of 1 year in prison and 1 year probation.
D) The Supreme Court rejected the defence's arguments of cruel and unusual punishment, and Latimer served all 10 years.

Question 11

When a jury acquits someone of breaking a law because they do not believe in or support that law it is called ______ the law.

A) retracting
B) nullifying
C) deactivating
D) sensitizing

Question 12

Which of the following statements about a challenge for cause is TRUE?

A) Such a challenge is raised after jurors have survived the process of peremptory challenges.
B) There is a limit on the number of challenges for cause that each attorney can raise.
C) The challenge argues that there is the likelihood that a juror will not be able to be impartial.
D) After the lawyer questions a juror, the judge decides whether to grant the challenge for cause.

Question 13

According to the text, which statement about the jury selection process in Canada is FALSE?

A) In most cases, jury selection proceeds without prospective jurors ever being questioned.
B) Lawyers usually know only a prospective juror's name, address, occupation and how they appear.
C) The best predictor of trial outcome is the pervasiveness of the evidence.
D) Much of the trial lawyer advisement available is in the form of stereotypes.

Question 14

The pool of jurors summoned from the list who appear for service is called a jury panel or:

A) voir dire.
B) juris populis.
C) venire.
D) acta posse.

Question 15

Which is NOT one of the categories of offences in the Canadian Criminal Code?

A) hybrid
B) summary
C) felonious
D) indictable

Question 16

Which statement about the role of the jury is FALSE?

A) Juries are used for the most serious indictable offences.
B) Jurors are often called the fact finders.
C) Jurors must unanimously agree on a verdict.
D) A jury is 12 persons unless it is a summary offence, which only uses 6.

Question 17

In 1975 the Criminal Code was amended to say that a jury's acquittal cannot be replaced with a court conviction; the acquittal can be set aside, however, and a new trial ordered. This change was called the _____ Amendment.

A) Bernardo
B) Pickton
C) Morgentaler
D) Latimer

Question 18

Which was NOT a consequence of Henry Morgentaler being convicted in the Quebec and Ontario court systems?

A) The Canadian government declared Morgentaler persona non grata and he left the country.
B) The Criminal Code was amended so that courts could not replace jury acquittals with convictions.
C) Quebec later decided to abandon further additional prosecutions as no jury would convict.
D) Canada's abortion law was struck down as unconstitutional.

Question 19

Which statement about the use of peremptory challenges is FALSE?

A) In Canada, trial judges usually grant 75% of peremptory challenges requested.
B) In a murder or high treason case, each side has 20 peremptory challenges.
C) For crimes where the sentence is 5 years or more, each side has 12 peremptory challenges.
D) The Crown examines the jury list before trial and should only be looking for criminal records.

Question 20

Which statement about the jury system in Canada is FALSE?

A) The use of juries in civil trials has steadily increased over the last two centuries.
B) Civil juries are not used at all in Quebec's civil law system.
C) Civil trials could involve either private parties or corporations.
D) There is no right to a jury trial for offences that are tried in the lower courts.

Question 21

Which case did NOT involve the defence successfully challenging the fact that the jury was not representative?

A) R. v. Catizone on the issue of including women
B) R. v. Nepoose on the issue of including women
C) R. v. Born with a Tooth on the issue of including Aborigines
D) R. v. Nahdee on the issue of including Aborigines

Question 22

General beliefs about a certain group of people or a certain type of crime that may interfere with a juror's ability to decide a case fairly is referred to as _____ prejudice.

A) specific
B) normative
C) schematic
D) generic

Question 23

To date, in studies on the effects of juror similarity to defendants, the variables analyzed have been:

A) gender and race.
B) gender, race, income and marital status.
C) gender, race, education and occupation.
D) the full range of demographic variables.

Question 24

Bias that occurs when there is such strong community concern about a trial outcome that a juror feels pressure to reflect area sentiments in the verdict is called _______bias.

A) generic
B) normative
C) specific
D) interest

Question 25

Schuller and Vo's research on juror partiality found that in simulated scenarios involving challenges for cause, potential jurors:

A) judged whites more harshly if they received a reflective challenge.
B) judged whites and blacks equally under closed-ended or no-challenge formats.
C) did not treat blacks and whites differently under any challenge format.
D) judged blacks more harshly under closed-ended or no challenge formats.

Question 26

Discuss what research and case law have said about pretrial publicity and its effects.

Question 27

Explain the process of jury selection and whether you think it offers any particular advantages to the defence or prosecution.

Question 28

What are the challenges to forming a representative, impartial or unbiased jury? Provide examples from the text about how court cases reacted to some of these issues.

Question 29

The text lists a number of reasons that members of First Nations might be underrepresented on juries. Which is NOT one of those reasons?

A) cost of transportation
B) individual levels of distrust for the courts
C) issues with documentation of citizenship
D) residences outside of the jury rolls' boundaries

Question 30

Describe the role of the jury and how it functions in contemporary Canadian courts.

Question 31

In defining partiality, the court has distinguished between two components, the ____, which would be prejudice and the _____, which would be discrimination.

A) attitude / behavior
B) unconscious /conscious
C) disposition /consequence
D) response /stimulus

Question 32

In R. v. Lifchus the Supreme Court clarified that beyond a reasonable doubt, based on reason and common sense must be logically connected to_______.

A) evidence
B) motive
C) impartiality
D) probability

Question 33

Which is NOT one of the research findings about juror attitudes described in the text?

A) When evidence is inconclusive, we tend to give defendants who are more like ourselves the benefit of the doubt.
B) If jurors are outnumbered by another racial group, they seem to treat a racially similar (but probably guilty) defendant more harshly.
C) Diverse juries deliberate longer, discuss more evidence and make fewer inaccurate statements about the facts of the case.
D) Research indicates that only members of minority groups seem to display both leniency and harshness toward members of their own race.

Question 34

What are CSI effects and are they all that negative?

Question 35

The order followed in the trial once witnesses take the stand is:

A) cross-examination, recross examination, direct examination, redirect examination.
B) direct examination, redirect examination, cross-examination, recross examination.
C) direct examination, cross-examination, redirect examination, recross examination.
D) cross-examination, direct examination, recross examination, redirect examination.

Question 36

Which is NOT one of the results of research on pretrial publicity mentioned in the text?

A) In Ogloff & Vidmar's study printed news material had the greatest impact on participants' perceptions in the Christian Brothers case.
B) In Wilson & Bornstein's study those who received pretrial information were more likely to render a verdict of guilty.
C) Freedman found that pretrial information only negatively affected those asked to rate the accused's guilt just after reading related material.
D) Liberman et al. have argued that judge's orders to disregard pretrial publicity had no remedial effect.

Question 37

All of the following have been concluded from research studies on gender and jury processes and outcomes EXCEPT:

A) In cases of sexual assault and child abuse, women are more likely to convict than men.
B) Women are more likely to accept rape myths from the defence than men are.
C) Women talk less during deliberations than men.
D) Men are more likely than women to be elected as jury foreperson.

Question 38

When Schuller and Vo looked at jurors' admissions of possible partiality, they found that while up to _____ admitted they might be biased, the triers of fact dismissed up to _____ of prospective jurors.

A) 10%/5%
B) 20%/41%
C) 14%/34%
D) 5%/10%

Question 39

Which is NOT a true statement about challenges for cause today?

A) A 2011 study found that when a reflective challenge is used, blacks and whites were judged equally by jurors.
B) Banning other prospective jurors from being present during challenges is required in all Canadian courts.
C) Potential jurors are less likely to admit potential bias if others from the panel are present.
D) Currently, Canadian courts use a single, closed-ended question for the cause challenge.

Question 40

Which is NOT discussed in the textbook as a remedy for prejudicial pretrial publicity?

A) adjournment
B) change of venue
C) directed verdict
D) challenge for cause