Juries

Will the Blago Trial Have Anonymous Jurors?

According to an article (Should Blagojevich's Jury Be Anonymous?) in law.com, the trial judge handling former governor Rod Blagojevich's upcoming corruption trial is considering whether to empanel anonymous jurors.  For background information on anonymous juries go here. 

Juror Experiments Lead to New Trial in Widmer Case

Here is the judge's opinion.  For more background infomation and discussion on the case go here and here.

New Jury Scholarship

Levett, Lora M. and Margaret Bull Kovera. Psychological

mediators and the effects of opposing expert testimony on juror

decisions. 15 Psychol. Pub. Pol’y & L. 124-148 (2009).

 

McClanahan, Jon P. The ‘true’ right to trial by jury: the Founders’

formulation and its demise. 111 W. Va. L. Rev. 791-830 (2009).

 

Maurer, Daniel. Note. The unrepresentative military jury:

deliberate inclusion of combat veterans in the military’s venire

for combat-incidental crimes. 6 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 803-848

(2009).

Jury News

Cincinnati Enquirer: Widmer Retrial Likely Both Sides Say (for an earlier discussion of the Widmer case go here and here)

Sacramento Bee:Sacramento murder-for-hire trial opens with 3 juries

LA Times:Sotomayor hearings: Thumbs up for the American jury system

Boston Globe:In insanity cases, leave decision in juries' hands

InjuryBoard.com: Laws Hide Insurance Coverage From Juries

SunHerald:DeLaughter seeks larger jury pool

Daily Press:Justice isn't anonymous

TheNewsTribune:Judge's wife a juror in his court

Avoiding Contact with Jurors

If you are an attorney and you want to gauge your ethical awareness with respect to dealing with jurors, take this month's California Bar Self-Assessment quiz.  The 20-question quiz is based on an article entitled "Avoiding Contact with Jurors" and tests the readers knowledge of potential pitfalls that can arise when interacting with jurors.  Both the article and quiz can be found in the California Bar Journal. 

NJ Adopts Federal Batson Standard

As the article below indicates, earlier this month the New Jersey Supreme Court in New Jersey v. Osorio made it easier for attorneys to challenge jurors because of their race.  Or put another way, New Jersey has decided to adopt the federal standard with respect to Batson challenges.

Court aims to prevent racial bias on juries

Juror selection based on racial discrimination may now be more easily prevented in New Jersey courtrooms, lawyers, public officials and legal experts say, after a recent decision by the state Supreme Court.

The justices unanimously ruled this month that a federal standard for proving bias replaces the state's original guideline and must be strictly enforced...

According to the federal guidelines, Perrone said lawyers who are concerned that prejudice may have influenced juror selection must prove the exclusion of a juror was both unreasonable and based on racial discrimination. Lawyers also may prove discrimination if the final makeup of the selected jury shows biases toward a particular ethnicity, Perrone said.

New Jersey had been following a guideline, established through precedent, that was hard to prove because it was vague. The federal guidelines told lawyers what they needed to prove bias, but the state's rule didn't, requiring lawyers only to prove a "substantial likelihood" it had occurred.

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.

Jurors with Prior Criminal Convictions

Some prosecutors may want to rethink the long held view that jurors with criminal records favor defendants.  The article below looks at one juror (Brian Rathbun) who made it on to a jury despite his prior conviction for murder which he openly disclosed to all in court.  Despite having plenty of peremptory challenges to strike the juror neither side did nor was he dismissed for cause.  In the end, Mr. Rathbun along with his other jurors found the defendant guilty of murder after four hours of deliberation.  

Convicted murderer sat on jury

A convicted killer sat on the jury that convicted Jack Nissalke of murdering Ada Senenfelder.

Brian Rathbun, 46, had pleaded guilty in 1983 to second-degree murder for stabbing a man. He was among 12 Fillmore County jurors who took less than four hours Monday to convict Nissalke on four counts of first-degree murder for stabbing Senenfelder in 1985.
The judge, defense attorneys and prosecutors all knew about Rathbun’s crime when they chose to seat him. Attorneys said he met all the criteria for a good juror and that by having his civil rights restored, Rathbun also had a duty to serve if selected.

But the judge in the case, Robert Benson, was surprised Rathbun made it onto the jury. Other legal experts say they’re not aware of another convicted murderer sitting on a murder trial jury, even as the standard for who qualifies as an impartial juror is changing.

“That’s the most unusual thing I’ve ever heard of,” said retired Winona County district judge Dennis Challeen, who has heard of odd cases from thousands of judges in 31 years of teaching at The National Judicial College in Reno, Nev. “It’s that unique.”

Jury Related Twitter Sites

Click on the name to reach the respective Twitter sites.  You have to sign up for Twitter (its free) to follow their tweets.

Professor SunWolf (JuryTalk)

Jury Consultant Anne Reed who also has an excellent blog, Deliberations.

Jury Consultant Dennis C. Elias (Jury Vox)

Make-Up of the American Jury

Excellent article by noted jury expert Paula L. Hannaford-Agor on the make-up of juries across America.

Justice Differences Between States

Trial by jury is a trademark characteristic of the U.S. justice system. More jury trials are conducted in the United States each year than in any other country in the world. Moreover, the United States uses jury trials for less serious criminal cases (misdemeanors), civil cases, and, in some states, even in cases involving municipal ordinance violations. This is a marked contrast to other countries that reserve jury trials for their most serious criminal cases (read full article here).