Juries

Diane Rehm to Discuss Jury Duty on Monday (Nov 3rd)

 

The Diane Rehm Show will discuss jury duty on Monday Nov 3rd.

The jury is a key component of our justice system. Some studies even say the experience of sitting on a jury can lead to further civic engagement. But many people never show up when summoned. Why some say it’s time to change jury duty in America.

Guests

• Melvin Wright Associate Judge, Superior Court of the District of Columbia; Presiding Judge of the Civil Division and chair of the Jury Committee.
• John Gastil head and professor, Communication Arts and Sciences and Political Science at Penn State; specializing in political deliberation and group decision making. He is a principal investigator for The Jury and Democracy Project, and co-author of "The Jury and Democracy: How Jury Deliberation Promotes Civic Engagement and Political Participation."
• Paula Hannaford-Agor director of the Center for Jury Studies, National Center for State Courts.
• Andrew Ferguson associate professor of law, University of the District of Columbia School of Law; former supervising attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. He is the author of "Why Jury Duty Matters: A Citizen's Guide to Constitutional Action."

The Good Wife to Feature Jury Tampering

Tonight, the American legal drama, Good Wife, will feature an episode on jury tampering.  Here is the write up by the Futon Critic.

 - As her husband's legal team continues to mount the case for his appeal, Alicia discovers evidence of possible jury tampering in her firm's class action law suit against a major pharmaceutical company, on THE GOOD WIFE, Tuesday, Oct. 13 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

SERIES REGULARS:

Alicia Florrick...................... Julianna Margulies
Diane Lockhart.................... Christine Baranski
Will Gardner................................ Josh Charles
Kalinda Sharma......................... Archie Panjabi
Cary Agos.................................. Matt Czuchry
Grace Florrick......................... Makenzie Vega
Zach Florrick........................... Graham Phillips

GUEST CAST:

Peter Florrick................................. Chris Noth
Jackie Florrick.......................... Mary Beth Peil
James McCloon............................ Chris Bauer
Calvin Tober.............................. Sam Stricklen
Carol Demory............ Mary Catherine Garrison
Judge Lee Sutman............................. Chip Zien
Ray Demory......................... Patrick Heusinger
Daniel Golden................................ Joe Morton
Jillian...................................... Erica Newhouse
Dr. Stanley Winsor...................... Peter Benson
Lara.............................................. Angel Desai
Senior Citizen........................... Elaine Kussack
Pollock.................................. Amanda Warren
Virginia Sun............................... Leslie Hendrix
Superintendant.................... Michael Kaycheck

WRITTEN BY: Todd E. Kessler

DIRECTED BY: Dan Minihan

According to the Boston Globe,

"Tonight is a jury-tampering-in-a-class-action-suit-against-a-big-pharmaceutical-company case, which is one of those we’re-a-weekly-legal-drama-so-we-can-be-lazy-when-it-comes-to-originality plots we’ve seen on a million other shows, which is too bad because this show could have been a focused what-happens-when-a-political-marriage-faces-public-disgrace melodrama."

How TV Shows Impact Jurors

First, there was the CSI effect where jurors, regardless of all other evidence presented, required forensic confirmation of the defendant's guilt.  Now, it appears that because of the new TV show Lie To Me some jurors may start considering themselves experts in detecting whether a witness is being untruthful or truthful while testifying.  At least that is the concern of Paul Ekman (considered one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century) who is the inspiration and a consultant for the new Fox TV show.

Inspirational Figure for ‘Lie to Me’ Worries About Jury Influence

These interpretational errors are so profound, Ekman says, that one of his main concerns with the show is that, "We don't want jurors thinking that because they saw 'Lie to Me,' that they can tell when someone on the stand is lying."

He adds, "It takes us two to four days in law enforcement training to get any sort of improvement. The 1 percent who are really good at it, we call 'wizards.' "