Legal Definitions - veniremember

A veniremember is an individual who has been called for jury duty and is part of the pool of potential jurors from which a jury will be selected for a specific trial. They are prospective jurors who are awaiting the selection process, known as voir dire, to determine their suitability to serve.

• Imagine a local court sends out hundreds of jury summonses to citizens in the community. When these individuals report to the courthouse on the appointed day and gather in the jury assembly room, each person in that room is considered a veniremember. They are all part of the larger group from which jurors will eventually be chosen for various trials that day.

• During a jury selection process for a complex corporate fraud case, a judge calls a group of forty citizens into the courtroom. These forty individuals take seats in the jury box and the gallery, waiting to be questioned by the attorneys about their backgrounds and potential biases. Each of these forty people is a veniremember, as they are all potential jurors being considered for that specific trial.

• A civil lawsuit involving a property dispute is about to begin jury selection. One of the individuals called for jury duty, Ms. Rodriguez, reveals during questioning that she is a close friend of one of the attorneys involved in the case. While she was initially a veniremember, the judge decides to excuse her due to a potential conflict of interest. Even though she did not make it onto the final jury, she was still a veniremember during the selection process.