Optimized Peremptory Juror Challenges

Abstract

The present invention teaches methods to optimize the exercise of peremptory challenges during the jury selection process in courts in the United States and worldwide. Jury selection in such jurisdictions is governed by possibly complex rules determined by the court, including procedures and specifications for the order of juror examinations and the subsequent exercise of peremptory challenges. Such peremptory challenges are typically limited in number and are therefore valuable to parties in a court action. Prior art uses ‘gut feeling’, intuition and educated guessing to guide in the exercise of peremptory challenges and is therefore not likely to produce an optimally empaneled jury. The present invention optimizes the use of challenges for the user of the invention by applying the results of Game Theory—a branch of mathematics focusing on competitive interactions between two or more parties, each with potentially conflicting interests over a common outcome. The current invention also provides a means to make such an optimization practical within a real world courtroom setting where decisions may be required in quick succession with little time for deliberation. The current invention can also be applied to similar selection situations such as a search committee's decision to select one or more applicants for a job, selecting applicants for admission to a college or research group, selection of corporate officers, sports team draft procedures, and numerous other situations wherein a group or committee composed of members with potentially conflicting interests must make selections from among a pool of applicants with possibly limited information about applicant favorability.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.