There are also some people who just don't want to do jury service. Self employed people, for example, who would lose business for however long the trial is on. For some people, that could really damage their business. So people pull out. Are we then at risk of having juries that are only made up of certain groups of people?
I have to admit, until I found out that South Africa don't have juries, I'd never really questioned the system. But it has got me thinking about it.
It's an important topic in the UK at the moment. Phone hacking and historic rape cases as examples. Our media has to obey the law (or is supposed to at least!) but they are very skilled at brushing up against it. Headlines can be provocative yet still perfectly legal. I remember a murder case where the victim's landlord was questioned. He was innocent, but the media had practically convicted him based on appearance alone.
By the time most of these high profile cases go to trial, many potential jurors will already have knowledge and opinions of the cases. And not all that information will be true. I can imagine it's not easy to put aside everything you've previously heard or read about a defendant in order to judge a case with a clean slate.
The problem is that it is either one or the other, we can't say that juries are ok as long as there are no "celebrities" involved. Or as long as the case hasn't been in the national press. A very tricky subject.