Juries

Oregon DAs to Support Ballot Measure for Unanimous Jury Verdicts

In a somewhat ironic twist, the organization representing state district attorneys in Oregon is throwing its weight behind a state ballot measure that would require unanimous juries for criminal convictions.  Oregon and Louisiana are the only two jurisdictions in the U.S. that permit non unanimous criminal jury verdicts.  According to the Multnomah County DA, Rod Underhill, “[w]e want to get it right...We want people to both actually believe that the system is fair and balanced and have perceptions of that fair and balance.” For more information about efforts to remove non-unanimous verdicts go here.

OPB.com: Oregon DAs To Back Campaign Against Non-Unanimous Juries

Latest Edition of the Jury-E-Newsletter

Pennsylvania’s Mock Trial Competition

In the January/February 2018 edition of The Pennsylvania Lawyer there was an article titledThe Benefits of Participation in the Mock Trial Competition. The article describes a competition put on by the Young Lawyers Division of the Pennsylvania Bar. Thousands of high school students participate statewide and the winner instate gets to participate in the National High School Mock Trial Championship. This is a well written article worth reading.

Jury Management Workshop

During this 2 1/2 day workshop on March 14-16, 2018 at the Ceremonial Courtroom in the CivilCourts Building in St. Louis, MO, participants will learn about best practices to improve the efficiency and cost effectiveness of jury operations, to ensure the integrity of the jury selection process, and to treat jurors with dignity and respect.

Ms. Paula Hannaford-Agor, Director of the NCSC Center for Jury Studies, teaches court managers and jury managers to:

• Identify strengths and weaknesses in jury operations
• Estimate the operational and fiscal impact of poor performance
• Implement policies and procedures to prevent or respond to legal challenges to the jury system
• Use tools, performance measures, and best practices to address problems

For more information, click here. 

Blair County Moves to Debit Cards for Juror Pay

The Altoona Mirror reported on January 23, 2018 that Blair County, PA has begun using debit cards to pay jurors. Controller A.C. Stickel said, “The county pays 49 cents for every card that we load, but that cost is offset by the 15 hours of staff time that we’re saving.” The court is using CourtFunds debit cards which is a product offered by Rapid Financial Solutions.

Editor’s note: Other courts have had difficult using debit cards because they had fees that kicked in after 90-120 days. Those fees conflicted with state law or policy.

Jurors Show their Bias?

The Inquirer reported on January 19, 2017 that a clerk for Philadelphia’s Civil Court at City Hall asked if anyone was interested in singing the Philadelphia Eagles fight song. One person agreed, took the microphone and sang the song. Several other prospective jurors joined in towards the end of the song.

The Psychology of Jury Decision Making

In the most recent edition of Voir Dire, there is an article titled The Psychology of Jury Decision Making which begins on page 30. The article describes the kinds of biases that jurors naturally have when appear for jury service.  For example, the author describes “defensive attribution” as follows: 

A subset of the fundamental attribution error is Defensive Attribution. This is a cognitive bias we use to protect ourselves from the fear that a negative event that happened to someone else would happen to us. When we hear about a tragic outcome, we want to psychologically distance ourselves from the belief that we could befall a similar fate. How do we do that? We focus on the actions, motivations and behavior of the victim as opposed to the circumstances. We say, “If I were in that situation I would have checked my mirrors, crossed the street, notified HR, etc.” The more similar we are to the person who has experienced the bad event, or the more likely it is that we could find ourselves in similar circumstances, the more likely we are to engage in defensive attribution.

This is an interesting article that is written for trial attorneys and is designed to help them better sculpt their questions and arguments to compensate for the described biases.  However, the article is well written and will be of interest to anyone that is interested in human behavior. 

God and the Jury

I am not sure if this is a growing trend but here is the second recent example of "divine intervention" during jury deliberations. While many people pray to God prior to making significant life decisions, few come out and say that God actually spoke to them during the deliberative process.  The first example involved a juror in the Corrine Brown fraud case who told other jurors that the “Holy Spirit” told him Brown, a former member of Congress, was not guilty.  This juror was subsequently removed. For more on that story go here. Now it appears that a judge in Texas stopped jury deliberations to inform jurors that God had personally told him of the defendant's innocence.  Unfortunately, for the defendant, this pronouncement by the judge was not enough to prevent the jury from coming back with a guilty verdict.  It remains to be seen what impact, if any, these religious epiphanies will have on appeal. 

Satesman: Texas judge interrupts jury, says God told him defendant is not guilty

Taiwan Juries

Margaret Lewis

Abstract

International human rights law does not demand lay participation in criminal trials. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides that “everyone shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law” but does not dictate the composition of the tribunal. In recent years, Taiwan has tussled with the extent to which public access to observing trials should transform into direct public participation in the outcome of those trials. To date, however, the role that lay people will serve in the adjudication process remains contested. As Taiwan moves towards formulating a specific plan for lay participation, this chapter questions whether proponents of lay participation are expecting too much of proposed reforms and encourages greater focus on how lay participation could impact the rights of the accused.

Racist Juror Leads SCT to Grant Reprieve to Death Row Inmate

In a 6-3 unsigned decision, the SCT in Keith Tharpe v. Eric Sellers remanded Tharpe's case back to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals so that it could reconsider whether he was eligible for a Certificate of Appealability. The SCT based its decision on racist comments made by one white juror, Barney Gattie, who had convicted Tharpe in 1991 for kidnapping and raping his estranged wife and killing her sister, Jaquelin Freeman. 

In a sworn affidavit post-trial, Gattie made several racist comments about African-Americans to include:

“The Freemans are what I would call a nice Black family...In my experience I have observed that there are two types of black people. 1. Black folks and 2. N******.”

“Because I knew the victim and her husband’s family and knew them all to be good black folks, I felt Tharpe, who wasn’t in the ‘good’ black folks category in my book, should get the electric chair for what he did,” 

“After studying the Bible...I have wondered if black people even have souls.”

According to the SCT,"Gattie's remarkable affidavit — which he never retracted — presents a strong factual basis for the argument that Tharpe's race affected Gattie's vote for a death verdict." 

Despite the favorable SCT ruling, Tharpe still has an uphill battle to get his conviction overturned.  He is only at the Certificate of Appealability stage.

To read a NY Times article about this case go here.

 

 

The Unconstitutionality of Criminal Jury Selection

Brittany Deitch

The Unconstitutionality of Criminal Jury Selection

Abstract

The criminal defendant’s right to a jury trial is enshrined within the U.S. Constitution as a protection for the defendant against arbitrary and harsh convictions and punishments. The jury trial has been praised throughout U.S. history for allowing the community to democratically participate in the criminal justice system and for insulating criminal defendants from government oppression. This Article asks whether the jury selection process is consistent with the defendant-protection justification for the Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury. Currently, the prosecution and defense share equal control over jury selection. Looking to the literal text of the Sixth Amendment, the landmark case on the right to a jury trial, and the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure for guidance, this Article explains that jury selection procedures undermine the defendant-protection rationale for the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. Because the Sixth Amendment grants this right personally to the defendant and the Supreme Court has construed this right as intending to protect the defendant from governmental overreach, the prosecution should not be entitled to select the very jury that is supposed to serve as a check against its power. After concluding that symmetrical power in juryselection undermines the constitutional purpose of the jury trial, this Article proposes two possible remedies.

Latest Edition of the Civil Jury Newsletter

 

The January Civil Jury Newsletter is now available. 

Latest Edition of the Jur-E Bulletin

Helping Jurors Succeed

The New Jersey Law Journal published an article on December 18, 2017 titled Helping Jurors Succeed. The article was written by Jefferey M. Pollock who is an attorney that specializes in complex litigation and appellate practice. One of the points that he makes is that the jury instructions that are currently in use are just too complex for jurors to fully comprehend. He also notes that jurors often struggle to make reasonable calculations of monetary awards. He offers a series of suggestions to improve these situations. This is a well-written article that is worth reading. 

Dallas, Texas Public Outreach

The Dallas Morning News on December 31, 2017 published a well-written public outreach piece on jury service.  It covers recent improvements to the local jury system, the importance of jury duty and practical information like what people should wear.  This is a well written article and courts should encourage their local media to run similar pieces.    

Juror Stress Research Paper

Kaitlyn R. Zander, a student at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse, recently released a research paper online titled Proposal for a Wisconsin Court System Counseling Program for Jurors Subject to Detrimental Stress. The paper does a good job addressing the issues surrounding juror-counseling programs, and it has a very comprehensive list of resources. The abstract to the article states:

This study addresses ameliorating juror stress resulting from exposure to graphic evidence from high profile and violent crimes. Research has shown that the impacted jurors experience physical and/or psychological symptoms that negatively affect their well-being. Although most jurors undergo minimal stressors, some are unable to effectively deal with the information from the trial, thus benefiting from third party counseling services. There are a variety of existing programs used by courts in states other than Wisconsin that have been successful. An analysis of these current programs has concluded that utilization of the Employee Assistance Program would be most beneficial for these jurors in Wisconsin.

Request for State Court Jury Plans

A regular reader would like to see jury plans used by other state courts. These may be in the form of administrative orders. They may cover the operational requirements for a jury manager from developing the master list, the procedures for managing excusal requests through to the confidentiality requirements for juror information. She is aware of the jury plans used by federal courts but would like to see what state courts have developed. Please email state court jury plans to Holly Swafford at Holly.Swafford@iowacourts.gov. 

Prosecutor Shares Her Experience Serving on a Civil Jury

The article below was written by a federal prosecutor who recently served on a civil jury. What I found interesting about the article is how the jury bonded during their time together.  Apparently, food played a big role.

 

ABAJournal.com: During her jury service, this prosecutor discovered a secret ingredient to delivering justice

Will the Holy Spirit keep former Congresswoman Corrine Brown out of prison?

For those unfamiliar with Corrine Brown, she is a congresswoman from Florida convicted of fraud charges last May in federal court.  Apparently, one of the jurors who sat on her case was removed during deliberations because he informed other jurors that the “Holy Spirit” told him Brown was not guilty.  While this statement may seem strange to some, I am not sure it is grounds for removal so long as the juror agreed to follow the court's instructions and deliberate with other jurors.  Thus, I think the congresswoman may have a chance on her appeal which are always very difficult. If nothing else, the juror's removal should serve as grounds to keep her out of jail pending her appeal to the 11th Circuit.  I have seen much weaker arguments succeed.  We will soon find out because the former 12-term Democratic congresswoman has a January 29 report date to prison.