Strike for cause (also referred to as challenge for cause or removal for cause) is a method of eliminating potential members from a

jury A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence and render an impartial verdict (a finding of fact on a question) officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Juries developed in England d ...

panel in the United States. During the

jury selection Jury selection is the selection of the people who will serve on a jury during a jury trial. The group of potential jurors (the "jury pool", also known as the ''venire'') is first selected from among the community using a reasonably random method. ...

process, after '' voir dire'', opposing attorneys may request removal of any juror who does not appear capable of rendering a fair and impartial verdict, in either determining guilt or innocence and/or a suitable punishment.Arbetman, Lee P. & O'Brien, Edward L. ''Glencoe Street Law'', pg. 50,648. Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, New York, 2005. . An example would be a potential juror in a murder case, where the sentencing options include the death penalty and a lesser sentence (such as life without parole), who states that they "would sentence a defendant to death if found guilty"; such a statement may indicate the person's unwillingness to fairly consider a life without parole sentence. Unlike a peremptory challenge (the number of which are limited by the court during ''voir dire'', and unless a

Batson challenge ''Batson v. Kentucky'', 476 U.S. 79 (1986), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court ruling that a prosecutor's use of a peremptory challenge in a criminal case—the dismissal of jurors without stating a valid cause for do ...

is raised the challenge is automatically granted) there is no limit to the number of strikes for cause that attorneys on either side of a case can be granted. However, also unlike a peremptory challenge, a strike for cause must state a specific reason (in the example above, the reason would be the juror's bias against a non-death penalty sentence) and be granted by the trial judge; often both attorneys and sometimes the judge will question the juror being challenged. If one attorney moves to strike a juror for cause but the judge rejects the motion, the attorney may still use a peremptory challenge (if they have any remaining) to strike the juror, and on appeal may raise a claim that the motion should have been granted but, because it was not, the attorney had to either use a peremptory challenge or seat a biased juror.

References

{{jury American legal terminology Civil procedure Criminal procedure Juries