Juries

Sleeping Juror

Professor Colin Miller at Evidence Prof Blawg has a post about Anderson v. Terhune, 2009 WL 2462398 (E.D. Cal. 2009), a case involving a juror accused of sleeping during trial.  Profess Miller suggests that the trial judge in Anderson misapplied the Supreme Court case Tanner v. United States, 483 U.S. 107 (1987), which addresses misconduct by jurors to include sleeping.  To read Professor Miller's entire post go here.

Professor Vidmar on the Jury

Noted jury expert and scholar Neil Vidmar has a new essay extolling the virtues of the American Jury in the July edition of ejournal USA.  In fact, the entire July edition of ejournal is dedicated to exploring the jury system.

Jury Trials: In Favor

The jury is a unique institution. Twelve ordinary citizens, sometimes as few as six, who have no legal training, are summoned to hear evidence about an important criminal or civil dispute. While the trial judge decides what evidence they can hear and instructs them on the law, in the end these ordinary citizens deliberate alone and render verdicts about guilt or innocence; sometimes about who should be sentenced to die; or, in civil cases, who should prevail in a dispute that sometimes involves many millions of dollars. But are juries competent and responsible enough to make these decisions? Overwhelming evidence indicates that they are. To continue reading go here.