Adversarial activity of the defender at the stage of the jury formation

The adversarial principle of the parties, most fully implemented in the trial, is particularly evident in the jury. Adversariality must be implemented in the preparatory part of the trial, where a jury is formed to consider a particular case. Lawyers' lack of proper work experience in a jury trial, if the procedure for forming the jury is not perfect, often leads to violations in the defender's adversarial activity. Violations are possible both at the organisational stage, which takes place outside the criminal procedure, and at the procedural stage of the jury formation. Violations in the drafting of the preliminary list initially lead to the formation of an unlawful composition of the jury, which influences not only the objective and fair hearing of the case, but also the stability of the sentence. Practices developed a mechanism for the timely suppression of these violations: to compare the preliminary list with the general list on the basis of which the selection was made; to check the randomness of the selection when surveying candidates in the preparatory part of the trial; to request for interrogation or for the protocol of a survey from the secretary who made the selection. At the procedural stage of the jury formation there is a problem of formal participation of the defender in the surveying, which deprives the lawyer of the opportunity to reveal untruthful answers of candidates and use this as a basis for appealing against the sentence. The objection to a juror procedure also does not meet the principle of adversariality. Since motivated objections are considered without the involvement of the parties, defenders should pay attention to their justification - indication of the basis for objection. Reducing the number of unmotivated objections to one leads to the fact that the defender's competent implementation of unmotivat-ed objection becomes particularly necessary. For the productive use of the granted right, the defender is advised to challenge the vicious practice of objecting to a candidate simultaneously with the prosecutor when the parties receive identical lists. Thus, to carry out effective adversarial activities, defenders should carefully prepare for participation in the formation of a jury in a particular case: they should actively and faithfully use the opportunities provided; adhere to the recommendations proposed by practitioners.

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