There are connotations about the word challenge which are
essentially dramatic. It implies a battle, a duel, a tournament.
It is difficult to ascertain exactly what principles govern the
successful examination and selection of a jury. In Massachusetts and
in certain important cases in New York, the whole panel of jurors
summoned for the term of court have been investigated by detectives
in order that the lawyer might have information about who was to be
rejected or accepted as a juror to decide the case. The propriety of
doing this may be questioned and the ordinary case could not bear such
an expense.
Nevertheless there is a possibly sound reason for obtaining such
information. Given a man's condition in life, his habits, his
occupation, his church, his associations, his politics, and given on
the other hand a certain state of facts, it is nearly ascertainable
how he is going to decide those facts. If a man has always been a rent
payer and has probably had continued trouble with his landlord about
repairs and a feeling of resentment at the regular recurrence of rent
day, is it not natural that he is going to be somewhat prejudiced
against a landlord in a dispute between landlord and tenant? or on the
other hand can a man who is one of the unfortunate owners of real
estate, and who having paid taxes, interest, insurance, repairs for
removal of tenement house violations, and with frequent vacancies,
really be absolutely just? If a juryman is a Jew, a Catholic, or a
Baptist, there will probably be an innate sympathy for his
co-religionist.
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