Is Arizona The Beginning Of The End For Peremptory Challenges?

On August 30, 2021, the Arizona Supreme Court instituted a landmark rule change that made Arizona the first state in the country to abolish the use of peremptory challenges in criminal and civil trials. Challenges to potential jurors at the trial stage of an action are utilized to allow for the litigants to secure a fair and impartial jury, which is a paramount necessity of our justice system. Trial attorneys are afforded an unlimited number of challenges for cause to excuse a potential juror from the proceeding. A challenge for cause is based upon the answers provided by a prospective juror during the voir dire process where those answers exhibit that the juror cannot be completely fair and impartial to one party or the other. Peremptory challenges had been adopted by every state in order to allow trial attorneys to excuse potential jurors – not based upon a standard of fairness or impartiality — but based upon a "gut" feeling more than anything else.