Been called a few times. I’m white, male, a late Baby Boomer, a graduate degree holder, and was a banker whose career concentrated in financial analysis / risk management. Mrs. Basket Case was an ERISA attorney, and in Bankruptcy court (federal jurisdiction only), I had professional contact with more than one employee of the Federal court system. No way any PI plaintiffs’ attorney allows me on a civil jury. I just read books until I was dismissed.
Several years ago, I was called for a federal criminal pool. On one case, I was pulled back from the group as a whole for additional voir dire. The prosecution (yes, the prosecution) asked me whether, given my demographic profile, I could be impartial. I replied that the answer depended on her definition of “impartial.”
I told her that as he stood there before me, the defendant was an innocent man, and I would hold the prosecution to a high standard to change that impression. Then, I turned to the defense team and told them not to take too much comfort….if the prosecution did in fact scale that standard, I would have no problem voting guilty.
Further, I told them that I viewed the charges to be exceedingly serious. Given that, if I were convinced of guilt, I would advocate for the maximum sentence to protect the general public.
So yes, I said, “According to the dictionary definition, I’m impartial. Which of you feels better about your case?”
After a pregnant silence, I was asked to re-join the general juror pool. About 30 seconds after that, I was told to go home.
