Hi. In 1996 I was charged in NY City with a misdemeanor but pled guilty to a violation, a non-criminal conviction.

In 2002 I served jury selection for 2 days. During selection for a criminal case the person handling the selection of jurors told us that if anyone has an "issue" with ever having been involved in a criminal case either as a complainant, victim or accused, to go into a separate room to see the judge.

Since I was involved as the accused back in '96, I did just that, sat before the judge(the whole thing recorded) and some other people and told the judge the facts that in 1996 I was charged with a misdemeanor but pled guilty to the violation. The judge then told me that "for this reason I am letting you off serving". So that was my time served and I wouldn't have to serve more time for another 6 years


The judge actually didn't ask me why I gave her the facts, she just let me get out of serving. Actually, my reason was that I was not totally comfortale with the possibility of being asked about my background and record during the trial and was kind of paranoid about it, but the judge never asked me why so I never had to actually tell her why. She just let me go

Yesterday I got an application for jury service in the mail and completed it as it's been 6 years and I may get called again.

My question is can my arrest and conviction record (it's partially sealed under 160.55 of NY state CPL) be made public as a juror in a criminal case? Can they ask me if I've ever been charged or convicted? Serving doesn't bother me too much, but the idea of being asked about my record in front of a jury case bothers me and I would like to forget the mistake I made 12 years ago .

Will I be given the opportunity again to talk to a judge and tell them I was once the accused in a criminal case?

Ok, this is not about you, stop being parinoid. They care less about what happened in your case as for as you.

What this is about, is finding people to be on a jury that may not have preconcieved ideas about certain crimes, During the questioning process for being on a jury, they may ask you may things about the work you do, your view points on subjects like homosexual activity and so on.

In your case, they normaly don't want a crime victim on the jury since they may want pay back, or the criminal on the jury, they may try and help the other criminal to get off.

But each jury selection is different, is it a criminal jury or a civil jury, misemeanor court cases or felony cases. But yes they are most likely to ask you

Normally, after receiving a summon, you have to verify either by mail or by phone that you meet the eligibility or not. So if you are not US citizen, have previous criminal record (even no conviction or already expunged), have served as jury during the past 12 months, etc.

You need to disclose these information prior to the questioning process.

I am a US citizen and I did the application by phone. I answered the questions about having served the past 12 months (no), felonies(no)

I don't mind them asking me those questions, it's during the trial itself that I'm concerned about, they may cross examine me and ask qustions about my record, what I did etc

No, they may ask you questions during the juror selection process, both a attorneys may ask you various questions to approve or ask for you to be excused.

Once the trial starts, the jury can not ask or be asked any questions by the attorneys.