Juries

Juror News

USA Today: Pearls of Travel Wisdom - Jury Duty and Travel Don’t Mix

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Possible juror violates court rules in Sheley case

Washington Post: Ohio judge turns down Cleveland serial killer’s request for new trial, no juror misconduct

Louisville Courier-Journal: Deputy sheriff taints jury pool, delays criminal trials

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Juror Receives Community Service for 'Friending' Defendant

Texas juror receives community service for 'friending' defendant in a civil case.

Star-Telegram: Jonathan Hudson has learned that some things just don't go on Facebook--namely jury duty. 

Hudson was a juror on a Tarrant County civil case last month when he tried to "friend" the defendant and discussed the case on his Facebook page, according to court records.  The woman [defendant] notified her lawyer who, in turn, told the presiding judge, Wade Birdwell.

Last week, Hudson, 22, pleaded guilty to four counts of contempt of court related to the matter.  He was sentenced to two days of community service, which will be chores assigned to him by the jury bailiff next month...to continue reading go here.

 

 

Conrad Murray Jury Will Not Be Sequestered

AP: Judge: No sequestering Jackson manslaughter jury

LA Times: Michael Jackson death: Judge refuses to sequester jury in trial

USA Today‎: Judge: Jurors will not be sequestered in Conrad Murray trial‎

Baltimore Sun: Jury in Michael Jackson Trial Will Not be Sequestered‎

Inadequate Voir Dire Leads to Murder Conviction Being Overturned (Commonwealth v. Toolan)

This week the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in Commonwealth v. Toolan, overturned the murder conviction of Thomas E. Toolan III.  The defendant, a 44-year-old former Manhattan bank executive, had been convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend on Nantucket in 2007. The Supreme Judicial Court, which based its reversal in part on U.S. v. Skilling, found that the trial judge

did not conduct his examination [voir dire] in a way that would have allowed him to make a sound determination as to whether each juror was impartial despite the exposure. Instead, he shifted the burden of assessing impartiality from himself to individual members of the venire. [FN26] Jurors' answers to individual voir dire questions on the defense of lack of criminal responsibility provided some additional insight into their willingness to return not guilty verdicts, but did not directly address the impact of publicity and local community attitudes and their opinion on them.

Because the voir dire was insufficient to support a contrary conclusion, it is appropriate to assume in the context of this case that jurors who did not state otherwise were exposed to negative pretrial publicity.

This is the second recent high-profile case in which a state court has called into question the voir dire practices of the trial judge.  In June, the NY Court of Appeals, in People v. Owen Steward, overturned a defendant's robbery conviction because the trial judge failed to identify prospective jurors by name, initials or panel number and only allowed defense counsel 5 minutes to conduct voir dire on each venire panel which generally consisted of 16 prospective jurors.

Apprendi and Jury Sentencing: New Law Review Article

Melissa Carrington, Applying Apprendi to Jury Sentencing: Why State Felony Jury Sentencing Threatens the Right to a Jury Trial, 2011 U. Ill. L. Rev. 1359.

Abstract: Jury sentencing may offer an alternative to traditional judicial sentencing models, but at what cost? After the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Apprendi v. New Jersey that only a jury can find aggravating factors that increase a defendant’s sentence beyond the statutory maximum, interest in the possibilities of jury sentencing in noncapital cases has resurfaced in the scholarly community. In the states where jury sentencing procedures are utilized, however, prosecutors often use the threat of jury sentencing mechanisms to undermine defendants’ Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. This Note examines the problems with jury sentencing mechanisms, particularly when a jury sentence is mandatory in conjunction with a jury trial, and it disputes the notion that the Apprendi line of cases supports an increased sentencing role for jurors under the Sixth Amendment.

Conrad Murray Wants Jury Sequestered

AP: Jackson doctor asks to sequester jury during trial

The doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death has asked a judge to sequester jurors in the physician's upcoming involuntary manslaughter trial, citing coverage of the Casey Anthony case and the threat of information leaks posed by Twitter and Facebook use...to continue reading this story go here.

Jury News

Star-Ledger: Freed on a technicality

‎Associated Content: What to Anticipate when You're Summoned as a Juror to the Superior Court of Stevens County, Washington

Daily Telegraph: Juror to receive ex gratia payment

WBRC: Government asks to meet with e-bingo trial jurors

Plain Dealer: Serial killer Anthony Sowell requests new trial, argues juror was ...‎

Detroit Free Press: Today, Wayne County judge to haul no-show jurors into court

Boston Herald:  When jurors get it wrong

‎Wisconsin Law Journal: Jurors face jail time for social media use during trial

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Attorney Serving Jury Duty Accused of Misconduct

According to the Wall Street Journal,

A Bronx woman allegedly lied about her legal and criminal background in order to serve on a tashelter fraud trial involving the ex-head of defunct law firm Jenkens & Gilchrist's Chicago office and the former top executive at accounting firm BDO Seidman LLP, lawyers for the defendants said in court papers unsealed Monday.

Although allegations of juror misconduct have unfortunately become fairly routine, they usually don't involve jurors who have graduated from law school.  Apparently, questions about the untruthful juror were raised shortly after the verdict when she sent a letter to the prosecution praising their trial skills.  However, it does not appear as though the trial judge is a 100% convinced that the attorneys and trial consultants for the defendant were completely in the dark about the juror's dishonesty during the trial.  Thus, the judge has requested that,

the defense lawyers, as well as their paralegals or jury consultants, to submit an affidavit on whether they knew about the juror's alleged misrepresentations before a verdict was rendered in the case and when they first learned of her alleged conduct

In the future, New York may want to consider emulating  Missouri which requires attorneys in certain instances to research jurors prior to trial if they want to later raise claims of juror misconduct.  For further information about this topic, see the articles below.

New York Law Journal: Tax Shelter Defense Seeks New Trial Over Juror's Hidden Identity

Wall Street Journal: Defense in Tax-Shelter Case Seeks New Trial Amid Juror Allegations

Bloomberg: Lawyer Daugerdas Seeks New Trial Based on Juror Misconduct

New Law Review Article

Elizabeth S. Vartkessian, Dangerously Biased: How the Texas Capital Sentencing Statute Encourages Jurors to be Unreceptive to Mitigation Evidence, 29 Quinnipiac L. Rev. 237 (2011).

Judge vs. Jury Conviction Rates

‎Wall Street Journal: Judges Acquit More Often Than Juries

From 2006 through 2010, felony defendants in New York City who opted for bench trials—in which a judge decides the case—were convicted 61% of the time, while juries convicted 67% of felony defendants, according to data from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services...to continue reading go here.

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