jury duty Flashcards
Peremptory
The prosecutors had all used peremptory challenges, which generally allow lawyers to dismiss potential jurors without offering an explanation. Peremptory comments are like orders. If you say something in a peremptory manner, you want people to stop what they’re doing and do what you say. Peremptory comments put an end to a discussion, and that’s final! The word peremptory comes from the Latin peremptorius for “decisive, final.” Trace it further and find that peremptor means “destroyer,” from perimpere for “destroy, cut off.” Basically, peremptory commands destroy the conversation. They are given with an air of authority, and they are often barked. In the courtroom, peremptory orders are not open to appeal; they’re final. Outside of the courtroom, a peremptory manner is just plain rude.
Prosecutor
The prosecutors had all used peremptory challenges, which generally allow lawyers to dismiss potential jurors without offering an explanation.
In a TV crime drama or in real life courts, the prosecutor is the person who brings criminal charges against a suspect.
A prosecutor is a lawyer who works for a state or government organization and is responsible for starting legal proceedings and then proving in court that the suspect committed the crime he’s accused of. The opposite of a prosecutor is a defense attorney. So on that TV crime drama, the prosecutor is the one trying to put the bad guy in jail, and the defense attorney is the one trying to prove that the guy really isn’t a bad guy.
defendant
..where prosecutors struck black jurors at double or triple the rates of others. In Georgia, prosecutors excluded every black prospective juror in a death penalty case against a black defendant, which the Supreme Court has agreed to review this fall. “If you repeatedly see all-white juries convict African-Americans, what does that do to public confidence in the criminal justice…
In court, the person who gets sued or accused is called a defendant — they have to defend their innocence or reputation.
One thing no one wants to be is a defendant: that means someone sued you, which could cost you a boatload of money. Other defendants are accused of crimes, which is even worse, because you could end up in jail. Turn on any TV show about lawyers, and you’ll see some of them defending the defendant, and others trying to convict the defendant. Defendants are definitely on the defensive. Another word for a defendant is a plaintiff.
aquital
Reprieve Australia, a group that opposes the death penalty and conducted the Caddo Parish study, said the likelihood of anacquittal rose with the number of blacks on the jury.
Acquittal is a legal word that defendants love to hear because it means “not guilty.”
In the 15th Century, an acquittal referred to the payment of a debt, but now it means being freed of charges against you in court. In fact, now the word is really used only in a legal sense. It’s from the Latinad “to” plus quitare meaning “set free.” Getting an acquittal is still like being set free. Free to do what you want, any old time! So now the only time you’ll need the word is in court, and it’s one word you hope to hear if you’ve been busted.
concurrence
In a concurrence in the Batson decision, Justice Thurgood Marshall said it was a necessary step to combat “common and flagrant” race discrimination, citing statistics from Louisiana, Missouri, South Carolina and Texas. But he called for “banning peremptories entirely.
When things happen at the same time, it’s a concurrence. If you pull up at a traffic light and you see your teacher in the car next to yours and your neighbor behind you, it’s an unlikelyconcurrence.
The Latin root of concurrence is concurrentia, which means “a running together.” You can use the noun concurrence to describe things that exist together or at the same time, and also when there’s an agreement, especially of results or opinions, like a concurrence of opinions among the school board about spending money on a new playground, or a concurrence in your family about wanting pancakes for breakfast.
flagrant
in a concurrence in the Batson decision, Justice Thurgood Marshall said it was a necessary step to combat “common and flagrant” race discrimination, citing statistics from Louisiana, Missouri, South Carolina and Texas. But he called for “banning peremptories entirely.”
Something flagrant is bad — so bad you can’t ignore it. A flagrant foul in sports might send you to the bench, and a flagrant violation of the law might send you to the slammer.
The current meaning of the adjective flagrant — “obviously offensive or disgraceful” — is thought to derive from the Latin legal term in flagrante delicto, which literally meant “with fire still blazing” and is used figuratively to describe a situation in which the criminal is caught red handed. Aside from a flagrant abuse of the law, the word can also be used to describe anything that is obviously bad — like flagrant bad taste or flagrant abuse of the rules of grammar.
exemption
Blacks may be less likely to be on jury lists that are drawn from voter registration records, less likely to appear when called, more likely to qualify for hardship exemptions and more likely to be disqualified for felony convictions.
When you get an exemption, you don’t have to do something. In the sixties, some people got exemptions from military service during the Vietnam War.
We don’t often think of being left out as a good thing, but when you use the word exemption, you mean that someone has been excluded in a positive way. Children are exemptions, or deductions, on tax forms; the more children you have the less taxes you pay. Some non-profits are tax-exempt; their exemption means they pay no taxes at all. Exemptions also spare people from fighting in wars and doing some jobs. An exemption gets you off the hook.
incoherent
Incoherent thoughts don’t follow each other logically. Incoherent speech is mumbled or jumbled. Incoherent means that something is difficult to understand because it’s not holding together.
A lot of people use incoherent to mean unintelligible, which is a perfectly fine usage. But it specifically means unintelligible due to a lack of cohesion, or sticking together. An incoherent argument may sound something like this. “I deserve to go to the dance because it is the second Tuesday of the month and my feet are a size ten.” The reasons do not follow each other logically and to not even relate. It’s an incoherent mess.
aquited
An acquitted defendant is off the hook. If you’re on trial for a crime and you’re found “not guilty,” then you’re acquittedand you can go free.
When you have been labeled acquitted, that means the jury has found you not guilty of the crime and legally blameless. The word gained notoriety in the highly publicized 1995 trial of the former football star O. J. Simpson, accused of murdering his wife and her friend. Simpson’s attorney’s mantra to the jury was “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” referring to a bloody glove connected to the murder.
deter
After Mr. Foster was convicted, Mr. Lanier urged the all-white jury to impose a death sentence to “ deter other people out there in the projects.”
Deter means to discourage. Many believe that the use of capital punishment deters people from committing murder. Others think that is hogwash.
From the Latin de meaning “away” and terrere meaning “frighten,”deter means to frighten away. “Hopefully the idea of being expelled will deter kids from cheating in school.” Teddy Roosevelt’s foreign policy dictum “walk softly but carry a big stick” was meant to deterother countries from messing with the United States.
lure
To lure is to entice or bait someone. Alure is used to bait or entice fish to attach themselves to your hook. “He had a new shiny lure, which was enough to lure me into going on the fishing trip.”
The verb lure is related to words that mean “bait,” “deceit,” and “invite.” Often, when lure is used, there is a nefarious implication, as in: “He was able to lure her into the alley, but her friends soon came looking for her.” The noun lure is the thing that draws in the person or animal, which can be either a physical object or a concept. “Thelure of his great wealth kept her in the relationship despite his infidelity.”
sullen
excluding blacks from juries: They were young or old, single or divorced, religious or not, failed to make eye contact, lived in a poor part of town, had served in the military, had a hyphenated last name, displayed bad posture, were sullen, disrespectful or talkative, had long hair, wore a beard.
A bad-tempered or gloomy person issullen. Sullen people are down in the dumps.
If someone is dark, dour, glum, moody, morose, or sour, they’re also sullen. Teenagers are often described as sullen, especially when they’re being grumpy and silent. You often hear about “a sullensilence,” which is when someone is quiet, but obviously in a lousy mood. If a sullen person is talking, they’re probably not saying much, and they might not be doing much beyond grunting. A sullen person isn’t much fun to be around.
if you are found not guilty you are:
aquited
if you want people to stop and do what you say right now you are talking in a _____ manner
Preemptory
concurrence
