Title 29, Judicial Procedure, Criminal

If a sufficient number of jurors cannot be selected to form a trial jury, the court, as often as is necessary, may order the sheriff to summon from the body of the county as many persons qualified to serve as jurors as the court deems sufficient to form a jury. The jurors so summ…

A challenge is an objection made to the trial jurors and is of two kinds: 1. To the panel; and 2. To an individual juror.

When several defendants are tried together they cannot sever their challenges but must join therein.

A jury panel is a list of jurors returned by a sheriff to serve at a particular court or for the trial of a particular action.

A challenge to a panel is an objection made to all the trial jurors returned and may be taken by either party.

A challenge to a panel can be founded only on a material departure from the forms prescribed by law in respect to the drawing and return of the jury, or on the intentional omission of the sheriff to summon one or more of the jurors drawn.

A challenge to a jury panel must be taken before a juror is sworn and must be in writing specifying plainly and distinctly the facts constituting the ground of challenge.

If the sufficiency of the facts alleged as a ground of challenge of a panel is controverted by the adverse party, that party may except to the challenge. The exception need not be in writing but must be entered upon the minutes of the court, and thereupon the court shall proceed …

If, on the exception, the court deems the challenge to a panel sufficient, it, if justice requires it, may permit the party excepting to withdraw the party's exception, and to deny the facts alleged in the challenge. If the exception is allowed, the court, in like manner, may per…

If facts alleged as the grounds of a challenge to a panel are denied, the denial, in like manner, may be oral and must be entered upon the minutes of the court, and the court shall proceed to try the questions of fact.

Upon the trial of a challenge to a panel, the officers, whether judicial or ministerial, whose irregularity is complained of, as well as any other persons, may be examined to prove or disprove the facts alleged as the ground of the challenge.

When a jury is formed from persons whose names are not drawn as jurors, a challenge may be taken to the panel on account of any bias of the officer who summoned them, which would be good ground of challenge to a juror. Such challenge must be made in the same form and determined i…

If upon an exception to a challenge to a panel, or a denial of the facts, the challenge is allowed, the court shall discharge the jury, and another jury can be summoned for the same term forthwith from the body of the county, or the judge may order a jury to be drawn and summoned…

A peremptory challenge can be taken by either party and may be oral. It is an objection to a juror for which no reason need be given but upon which the court must exclude that juror.

A challenge for cause is an objection to a particular juror and is either: 1. General, that the juror is disqualified from serving in any case or trial; or 2. Particular, that the juror is disqualified from serving in the case on trial.

General causes of challenges are: 1. A want of any of the qualifications prescribed by law to render a person a competent juror, including a want of knowledge of the English language as used in the courts; and 2. Unsoundness of mind or such defect in the faculties of the mind or …

Particular causes of challenge are of two kinds: 1. A bias which, when the existence of the facts is ascertained, in judgment of law disqualifies the juror, and which is known in this title as implied bias; and 2. The existence of a state of mind on the part of the juror, with re…

A challenge for implied bias of a juror may be taken for all or any of the following causes, and for no other: 1. Consanguinity or relationship to the person alleged to be injured by the offense charged, or on whose complaint the prosecution was instituted, or to the defendant. 2…

An exemption from service on a jury is not a cause of challenge but the privilege of the person exempted.

In a challenge for implied bias, one or more of the causes stated in section 29-17-36 must be alleged. In a challenge for actual bias, the cause stated in subsection 2 of section 29-17-35 must be alleged, but no person may be disqualified as a juror by reason of the fact that the…

All challenges to an individual juror, except peremptory, must be taken, first by the defendant, and then by the state, and each party shall exhaust all of that party's challenges before the other begins.

The challenges of either party for cause need not all be taken at once, but they must be taken separately, in the following order, including in each challenge all the causes of challenge belonging to the same class: 1. To the panel; 2. To an individual juror for a general disqual…

If all challenges on both sides are disallowed, either party, first the state and then the defendant, may take a peremptory challenge, unless the party's peremptory challenges are exhausted.