Chapter 3 considers peremptory challenges and how they impede the transformation of citizens into jurors. The traditional view of peremptory challenges is that they help to seat an impartial jury. Peremptory challenges permit lawyers to remove a certain number of prospective jurors without having to give a reason. One problem is that lawyers are ill-equipped to uncover subtle juror biases during voir dire. Another problem is that lawyers continue to exercise peremptory challenges in a discriminatory manner. According to the transformation view, the jury needs to consist of a diverse group of jurors. The transformation view rejects the goal of trying to weed out subtle biases that cannot really be known in favor of the goal of increasing jury diversity. Eliminating peremptory challenges altogether is the most effective way of stopping discriminatory peremptory challenges, particularly because other methods have fallen short. Even with the elimination of peremptory challenges, for cause challenges should remain. They allow the judge to remove the extreme cases of biased jurors, such as those who admit that they are biased.

Trial by jury in Russia is an ongoing legal and political experiment that has been carried out for the last 155 years. Throughout this period several governments in Russia attempted to use the jury trial to legitimize courts in the eyes of citizens by involving them in the administration of justice. At the same time, the government exercised close control over lay participation through various legislative and judicial mechanisms. We analyze legislative changes affecting the jury over the course of its history in Russia and we identify and examine three main controlling mechanisms. These include the relationship between the Russian government and the jury trial; the change in types of cases that juries can hear in Russia, especially in relation to crimes against the state; the diminishing role of the defense with respect to juries; and the increasing role of the government in influencing jury composition. This chapter also explores the significance of adversarial and inquisitorial elements of the Russian jury trial in Tsarist and modern times.