The use of peremptory challenges is controversial as some feel it has been used to undermine the balanced representation on a jury which would occur using random selection.
The existence of peremptory challenges is alleged to be an important safeguard in the judicial process, allowing both the defendant and the prosecution to get rid of potentially biased jurors, however with no reason given for their dismissal, this could never be proven.
Their use allows attorneys to use their training and experience to dismiss jurors who might say the correct thing, but might otherwise harbor prejudices that could infringe the rights of the defendant to a fair trial.
The use of peremptory challenges is controversial as some feel it has been used to undermine the balanced representation on a jury which would occur using random selection.
While courts are not allowed to strike out entire groups of people from a particular jury, some would argue that peremptory challenges give individual parties this power.
[2] In the criminal case Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986), it was held that the prosecution's actions of striking groups of people based on race violated parties' right to equal protection.
[3] Justice Thurgood Marshall, while concurring with the opinion, believed that ending racism in jury selection could "be accomplished only by eliminating peremptory challenges entirely.
In the American legal system of the past, attorneys' power to exercise peremptory challenges was nearly unlimited; this fueled the controversy over whether this process tampered with the fairness of jury trial.
The number of challenges awarded to each of the prosecutor and the defense depended on the type of charge and maximum potential sentence.
The right of peremptory challenge was abolished altogether by the Criminal Justice Act 1988,[10] which saw it as a derogation from the principle of random selection, and felt that its removal would increase the fairness of the jury system.
Unlike the rest of the United Kingdom, peremptory challenge survived in Northern Ireland into the twenty-first century.
[20] As of 2014[update], the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has held that a peremptory challenge based on perceived sexual orientation is unconstitutional.