Juries

Jury News

Majiros News: Japanese Supreme Court issues landmark decision on citizen juries

Jacksonville Daily Record: The experiences of one lawyer-juror

New Zealand Herald: Radical jury trial overhaul proposed

Beaumont Enterprise: 'CSI' Effect or stubborn jurors to blame for SETX mistrials?

‎The Republic: Witnesses, juror question conviction in 1998 NYC killing in ...

Bellingham Herald: Judge excuses some jurors because of opinion about immigrants

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Appellate Court Criticizes Trial Judge's Interactions with Jurors

ABC7chicago: Mob case judge skewered during appeal

Chicago Tribune: Judge voices concerns about juror contacts in mob trial

A federal appellate judge has expressed misgivings about a lower court judge's contact with jurors during Chicago's highest profile mob trial in decades — one credited with helping to weaken organized crime.

The judge commented Monday as attorneys for convicted reputed mobsters argued for a do-over of the 2007 Family Secrets trial before the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Jurors five years ago convicted reputed mob boss James Marcello and others of racketeering conspiracy that included 18 murders.

Appellate Judge Diane Wood said at Monday's hearing she's concerned by accounts that trial Judge James Zagel seemed to have “private chats” with jurors that didn't become part of the official trial record.

Defense attorney Francis Lipuma singled out how Zagel dismissed one juror without consulting the trial lawyers.

Sandusky's Jurors May be Local

The trial judge hearing the child sexual assault charges against former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky has decided at least initially to use local jurors.  The prosecution had requested (against the desires of the defense) that jurors be selected from outside of the State College area to avoid the possibility of bias.  The question, however, is not necessarily settled.  According to the trial judge, "If, after a reasonable attempt it is apparent that a jury cannot be selected within a reasonable time, then I will reconsider this ruling..."

BusinessWeek: Ex-Penn State Coach Sandusky Gets Modified Bail, Local Jury

Huffington Post: Jerry Sandusky Can See Grandchildren, Granted Local Jury By Judge

 

Practical Limitations of Measuring Representation in the Jury Pool: New Law Review Article

Paula Hannaford-Agor and Nicole Waters, Safe Harbors from Fair-Cross-Section Challenges? The Practical Limitations of Measuring Representation in the Jury Pool, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies

Abstract: The U.S. Constitution guarantees criminal defendants the right to an impartial jury selected from a jury pool that reflects the demographic composition of the geographic community served by the court. Yet there is little consensus in case law from state and federal courts about the most appropriate method of measuring demographic representation or the degree of underrepresentation that would violate the fair-cross-section requirement. Although the U.S. Supreme Court recently addressed these issues for the first time since Duren v. Missouri, its opinion in Berghuis v. Smith did little to settle the questions. In the present article, the authors use demographic information from the U.S. Census Bureau and information about jury operations in state courts from the National Center for State Courts to estimate the potential impact of competing proposals about how to measure demographic representation at different threshold levels of constitutional tolerance. Given the demographic composition of counties in the United States and the size of the jury pool in most courts, the authors find that a bright-line rule using either of the two most common measures of representation (absolute disparity and comparative disparity) would create “safe harbors” in which the courts in a majority of jurisdictions across the country would become effectively immune from fair-cross-section challenges.

Susan Macpherson Discusses the Role of Trial Consultants

Watch top trial consultant Susan Macpherson discuss her role in the trial process.

h/tip Jurors Behaving Badly

 

Prospective Juror Knows Defense Counsel

Detroit Free Press: In Hutaree Militia Case, Potential Juror Poses Legal Question

The defense and prosecution in the Hutaree militia case are stumped over a novel issue that surfaced during jury selection today: one of the potential jurors was once represented by a defense lawyer in the case.

The juror – who was placed in the jury pool anyway – is a retired Detroit police officer who years ago fired her weapon, while off duty, at a suspect who had robbed her while on her way to work.

Turns out, the lawyer who helped her prepare a statement for internal affairs at the DPD was Michael Rataj, who is now representing Tina Stone, one of the seven Hutaree suspects charged with plotting a violent overthrow of the government that involved killing a police officer and bombing a funeral.

“In 23 years, I’ve never had this come up,” said Rataj, who was quick to recognize the juror and report it to the judge and prosecution.

The juror, who took a minute to recognize Rataj, said she saw no conflict of interest in her serving on the jury, and, that she would not favor the defense because of her brief encounter with Rataj.

Neither side objected to advancing the woman into the jury pool, despite that she’s a retired police officer, and the case centers around claims that the Hutaree militia members plotted to kill police officers.

The defense team, meanwhile, said it would research the jury selection issue to make sure no legal, professional or ethical boundaries get crossed if the woman stays on the jury.

U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts cautioned both sides to make sure nothing backfires should she end up in the final jury panel.

“An appealable issue based on this just isn’t worth it,” Roberts said...to continue reading go here.

New Michigan Law May Increase Minority Representation on Juries

Michigan now has a new law (Public Act 3 of 2012) on the books that in the words of the governor will "address[] a contributing factor to the under-representation of minorities on juries."  Pursuant to the new law, potential jurors cannot be disqualified from service simply because they did not return juror questionnaires.  Jury boards now will be required to send questionnaires to each person on a jury list, regardless of whether that person has failed to return a questionnaire in the past.

Go here to read the new law.

Federal Study on Jurors and Social Media Does Not Add Up

Recently, the Federal Judiciary Center released a study in which it determined that "use of social media by [federal] jurors during trials and deliberation is not a common occurrence."  The study goes on to say that "[o]f the 508 judges who responded to the survey, only 30 judges (6%) reported any detected instances of jurors using social media during trial and deliberation." The study relied solely on information from judges and did not survey any jurors or attorneys.

To date at least two commentators have questioned the validity of this study.

Allison Frankel of Thompson-Reuters writes:

That seemed like underreporting to OTC, based on anecdotal evidence and our previous report on the cottage industry that's already arisen around monitoring potential jurors' social-media usage. On several occasions we've run a Twitter search for users talking about jury duty, and it never fails to provide immediate results. Today it took under two hours for several gems to pop up, including one from tweeter @RebeccaDoel, who said she was "Wishing more than ever that I could live tweet #JuryDuty." She also wrote earlier this morning that TLC's "No Scrubs" was playing on the deliberation room "boom box."

Eric P. Robinson of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Courts writes:

But the issue here is how the jury pool correlates with frequent users of the Internet and social media, and then whether jurors who are such users can be convinced – or compelled – to not use these services while serving jury duty.

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, overall 78 percent of adults use the Internet. (There are, however, some variations on usage based on age and education level.) About 77 percent of adults do so on a daily basis.

If a jury pool is representative of the adult population, it certainly includes these daily Internet users.

The fact that only two of the judges in the survey discovered the social media use on their own shows that such activity is hard to detect, both inside the courthouse and – especially – outside of it.

There are certainly numerous anecdotal instances in which jurors have been found to be using the Internet or social media trial. The problem is that it may be impossible to really know how many jurors are doing this.

But that doesn't mean that it isn't happening.

Having researched and studied this issue, I am in agreement with both Robinson and Frankel.  My concern here is that the federal courts will use this study as proof that jurors are following the court rules but that is not the reality.  As I have stated previously, I think the courts need to implement reforms to head off this growing problem.

Jury News

ABC News 4: Note from a juror ends double murder trial

Chicago Tribune: Reluctant juror parades with court-ordered sign

The Republic: Researcher testifies about dismissal of black jurors during Racial ...

NewsChannel 9 WYSR: Jail deputies plead not guilty to providing juror information

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Pittsburgh Tribune Review: Orie wants jurors sequestered in trial

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