Everyone must take part of a jury service unless disqualified or excused. People with certain criminal convictions cannot sit such as; those who have been sentenced to life imprisonment or a custodial sentence of 5 years or more, those who have served a custodial sentence for public protection or have been given an extended sentence, those who are currently on bail.
Those who cannot sit are also the mentally disordered persons. A judge can discharge any person from being a juror if they do not have the capacity to cope with the trial such as not being able to understand English or being blind or deaf.
The Juries Act 1974 was amended by the Criminal Justice Act 2003 allows categories of people which used to be excluded able to serve on a jury. This included members of the judiciary and people involved in the administration or justice or the armed forces, the medical professions and MPs. Under the discretionary excusals, people with problems can asked to be excused or for their jury service to be deterred for reasons such as; being ill, suffering a disability, being a mother with a small child, business appointments, examinations and holiday which are already booked. People who do non-attendance for jury service they may be fined up to £1000.
The selection of a jury starts with names being selected at random from the electoral register from the local area, which is done by a computer. Jury vetting is the process of checking the background of potential jurors to see if they are suitable. 15 jurors are selected at random from the pool and allocated to a court. A panel of 12 jurors are chosen randomly by the court clerk. The defence may challenge to the array, this is to challenge the whole jury on the basis it is unrepresentative or biased. They could also challenge for cause, this is to challenge the right of an individual juror to sit on the jury. The prosecution can also use these to challenge and also prosecution right to stand by jurors, which is a juror goes to the bottom of the potential jurors on the case and so will not be used unless there are not enough jurors.
