This article originally appeared in the September 2016 issue of The Journal of the Delaware State Bar Association, a publication of the Delaware State Bar Association.
Superior Court Criminal Rule 24(a) explicitly permits attorneys to participate in the voir dire process by directly questioning prospective jurors. Despite the plain language of the rule, in 1971, the Delaware Supreme Court’s opinion in Parson v. State effectively ended the practice of allowing attorneys to question jurors during voir dire.
Copyright © Delaware State Bar Association 2016. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.