Striking A Jury

In English practice. Where, for nicety of the matter in dispute, or other cause, a special jury is necessary, upon motion and rule granted thereon, the sheriff is to attend the prothonotary or proper officer with the book of freeholders, and to take indifferently forty-eight of the principal freeholders, when the attorneys on each side, being present, are to strike off twelve respectively, and the remaining twenty-four are returned. 3 Bl. Comm. 357. Essentially the same practice prevails in some of the states.

In English Practice. WJhere, for nicety of the matter in dispute, or other cause, a special jury is necessary, upon motion and rule granted thereon, the sheriff is to attend the prothonotary or proper officer with the book of freeholders, and to take indifferently forty-eight of the principal freeholders, when the attorneys on each side, being present, are to strike off twelve respectively, and the remaining twenty-four are returned. 3 Bla. Com. 357. Essentially the same practice prevails in New York, Pennsylvania, and other states; Tr. & II. Pr. § 636. See Jury; Graham, Pr. 277. In some of the states a special or struck jury is granted as of course upon the application of either party; but more generally it must appear to the court that a fair trial cannot be otherwise had, or that the intricacy and importance of the case require it. One of the parties being a citizen of color, the judge cannot properly direct a special jury to be impanelled, one-half of whom are of African descent; Nashville v. Sheperd, 3 Baxt. (Tenn.) 373; Virginia v. Rives, 100 U. S. 313, 25 L. Ed. 667. The statutory method of striking is held to be mandatory; Gallagher v. State, 26 Wis. 423; Long v. Spencer, 78 Pa. 303. See Abb. N. Y. Dig. tit. Trial §§ 196-208; Thomp. & Merr. Jur. § 14.

v. Jury, struck.