ABSTRACT
Most persons are capable of being competent jurors with appropriate training, and the courts should take responsibility for providing such training. The Court provided no psychological basis for its supposition that widespread community bias rendered individual jurors' assertions of impartiality less reliable. The task of the trial judge is to dampen the influences that undermine impartiality by emphasizing that which unites the jurors - their common search for a fair and just verdict. To recapitulate, the challenge facing the legal system is to identify prospective jurors who have the qualities of character, temperament and mind that will enable them to be impartial, and to provide the training that will bring out these traits to best advantage. The government's stated concern was that the challenge was being used against qualified jurors whose appearance suggested that they might be unsympathetic to the claims of criminal defendants. There is no lack of opportunity for lawyers in the United States to identify biased jurors.
