2011 Missouri Revised Statutes
TITLE XXXIV JURIES
Chapter 494 General Provisions as to Juries
Section 494.480. Peremptory challenges--civil cases, multiple parties, allocation--criminal cases--qualification of juror as basis for new trial--costs for impaneling jury to be paid, when.

494.480. 1. In trials of civil causes each party shall be entitled to peremptorily challenge three jurors. When there are multiple plaintiffs or defendants, all plaintiffs and all defendants shall join in their challenges as if there were one plaintiff and one defendant. The court in its discretion may allocate the allowable peremptory challenges among the parties plaintiff or defendant upon good cause shown and as the ends of justice require. In all cases, the plaintiff shall announce its challenges first.

2. In all criminal cases, the state and the defendant shall be entitled to a peremptory challenge of jurors as follows:

(1) If the offense charged is punishable by death, the state shall have the right to challenge nine and the defendant nine;

(2) In all other cases punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, the state shall have the right to challenge six and the defendant six;

(3) In all cases not punishable by death or imprisonment in the penitentiary, the state and the defendant shall each have the right to challenge two.

3. In all criminal cases where several defendants are tried together, the following provisions shall apply:

(1) Each defendant then on trial shall be allowed separate peremptory challenges as provided in subsection 2 of this section;

(2) The number of peremptory challenges allowed the state by subsection 2 of this section shall be multiplied by the number of defendants then on trial in each case.

4. Within such time as may be ordered by the court, the state shall announce its peremptory challenges first and the defendants thereafter. The qualifications of a juror on the panel from which peremptory challenges by the defense are made shall not constitute a ground for the granting of a motion for new trial or the reversal of a conviction or sentence unless such juror served upon the jury at the defendant's trial and participated in the verdict rendered against the defendant.

5. If the defendant pleads guilty to a lesser or included offense other than the offense charged in the information or indictment in return for a specific lesser sentence than such defendant would likely have received if such defendant were found guilty of the crime charged, or makes any other plea bargaining arrangement, at any time after the jury is impaneled such defendant shall be liable to the county for the costs associated with impaneling the jury.

(L. 1989 S.B. 127, et al., A.L. 1993 S.B. 180, A.L. 1996 S.B. 869)

Effective 7-1-97

Annotation Copyright Missouri Joint Committee on Legislative Research