Trump’s jury will be chosen by the book

NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s history-making criminal trial is set to start Monday with a simple procedural step that is vital to American democracy. A group of regular citizens — Trump’s peers, in the eyes of the law — will be chosen to decide whether the former president of the United States is guilty of a crime.

The process of picking a jury could take days. Lawyers on both sides will have limited opportunities to try to shape the panel in their favor, but the court’s goal won’t be to ensure that it has a partisan balance between Democrats and Republicans or is made up of people oblivious to news coverage about the trial.

The idea is to get people who are willing to put their personal opinions aside and make a decision based on the evidence and the law.

The jury will be made up only of people who live in Manhattan, one of New York City’s five boroughs. All English-speaking U.S. citizens over age 18 who have not been convicted of a felony are eligible for jury duty in New York. Court officials identify potential jurors from lists of registered voters, taxpayers, driver’s license holders, public benefit recipients and other sources.

The pool of potential jurors for Trump’s trial has been chosen at random. People can volunteer for jury duty, but they can’t pick what trial they serve on. Jury duty is compulsory, but a person can get excused for a variety of reasons, including a financial or medical hardship.

Judge Juan M. Merchan will begin by bringing a large group of potential jurors into his courtroom. He will then give a brief outline of the case and introduce the defendant, Trump, to the jury. The judge will then ask the potential jurors a critical question: Can they serve and be fair and impartial? Those who indicate they cannot serve or be fair will be dismissed.

Those who remain will be called in groups into the jury box, where they will be asked 42 questions.

The lawyers on each side will have a limited number of strikes they can use to exclude potential jurors whom they don’t like, without giving a reason. They can also argue that a particular juror should be excluded but must get the judge to agree.