§ 8.01-360.Additional jurors when trial likely to be protracted.

Long trials strain a jury, and this section gives courts a way to plan for that strain in advance. When a case looks likely to run long, the court can order the selection of additional jurors, drawn from the same source, in the same manner, and at the same time as the regular panel, held to the same qualifications and subject to the same examination and challenge.

The mechanics scale with how many extras the court wants: one additional juror means three veniremen get drawn, with the plaintiff and defendant — or the Commonwealth and the accused in a criminal case — each getting one extra peremptory challenge; two or more additional jurors means twice as many veniremen drawn, with one extra peremptory challenge granted per every two additional jurors. The court picks which jurors count as “additional” by lot, and while the parties learn who those additional jurors are at the time the jury is impaneled, the jurors themselves never learn their own status until they are excused.

Before the case goes to the jury for a final decision, the court trims the panel back down to the number required under § 8.01-359, excusing whichever additional jurors are no longer needed.