A criminal trial in Maryland is always a monumentally stressful situation, as your freedom often is on the line. One way to ensure you receive justice is to maximize the fairness of your trial, and one way to do that is through juror selection. Effectively executing the juror selection process helps ensure that the jury that decides your fate is impartial. Juror selection is one of the many settings — before, during, and after trial — where having a skilled Maryland criminal defense lawyer is vitally important.
A common problem accused people and defense attorneys face is the tendency among some prospective jurors to associate witnesses for the state (like police officers and experts testifying for the prosecution) with integrity and credibility and connect witnesses for the defense with untrustworthiness. Identifying and excluding those potential jurors is crucial to a fair trial and a successful defense.
That element of juror selection was central to a recent felony case from Baltimore. The defendant, R.A., was on trial for shooting a man during a June 2022 party at the city’s Inner Harbor. The state put him on trial for the shooting in 2023.