What Really Happens On Juries

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/power-to-discharge-juror-and-save-trial/2008/04/29/1209234862817.html

JUDGES will be given greater powers to discharge individual jurors without having to abort a trial under reforms passed through state cabinet yesterday.

And in a move aimed at heading off a Joh’s Jury-type situation, jurors will be able to complain to judges or the sheriff about the conduct of other jurors to enable troublemakers to be discharged.

Legal counsel will also be given new powers to contest any decision by a judge to discharge a jury in the Criminal Court of Appeal.

The changes are to be introduced in the Jury Act in the next session of Parliament. They are derived from a Law Reform Commission report which also encouraged higher fees for jurors, and called for members of certain protected professions, such as doctors and lawyers, to be expected to serve on juries.

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http://www.thepoptort.com/2008/05/important-petit.html

I reported to Queens Civil Court at 8:30 AM Wednesday morning. After a day and half of waiting around I was called on a panel of three to be questioned by the two attorneys in a negligence case. I was on the hot seat. The plaintiff’s attorney asked me right away about my employer, “Mr. Guyette what is the Center for Justice & Democracy?” With a smile I told him that we are a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the civil justice system and protecting consumers’ right to a trial by jury. His face immediately brightened up. After several more questions about whether I could be fair in this case, it was the defense attorney’s turn.

I told him that I thought of myself as a pretty fair guy who wouldn’t jump to any conclusions before hearing all of the evidence on both sides. He was still concerned about my job and asked, “Mr. Guyette would you say your work is more pro-plaintiff or pro-defense?” I told him that I would not characterize my work as either, but rather “pro-consumer.” He then asked, “Is there anything Mr. Guyette that I should know about you that I don’t already know.” Kind of an open-ended question I thought. I said “no” and told him that my life is pretty much an open book. Both attorneys then left the room to decide whether they wanted me. They came back, and much to my surprise, I was picked as the 5th juror!

What? I was sure the defense attorney would have knocked me off. But it turns out, as I later learned, the defense attorney had used all of his juror challenges the previous day. Oh well!

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http://trialadnotes.blogspot.com/2008/05/jury-and-democracy-project-thur-515.html

Prof. John Gastil will discuss his work examining the relationship between jury service and civic participation at an event hosted by the Forum on Law and Policy, Thur. May 15, 12:30, William H. Gates Hall rm 117. (Students: free lunch!)

Prof. Gastil is a leader of the Jury and Democracy Project.

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http://debtprison.net/wordpress/133/getting-out-of-jury-duty/

Out of the 39 potential jurors the team of lawyers will select 13. One extra juror is needed as an alternate in case one of the others has to be replaced. But first the lawyers have a question and answer period where they size up the individual jurors. For this part of the process we were seated in four neat rows, side by side. Each of us had a number and if we needed to talk we would hold up our number so the court reporter could document our number and then our comments or questions.

This was a civil court case where the plaintiff’s car had been struck from behind by a large truck. The plaintiff was suing the trucking company for medical bills, loss of income, pain and suffering and so on. As her lawyer stood before us asking questions, he finally reached the question where I had to draw a line in the sand.

“Do any of you have a problem awarding large settlements?” he asked.

I honestly couldn’t help it, my hand slowly started to rise. Notice that this question is purposefully ambiguous. So another juror decided to help him out by asking “Define large”. At this point the lawyer gave an ambiguous answer, then turned his head and asked me “Could you explain number 29?” I was glad to.

“Her medical bills should be taken into consideration. Also, loss of income and the potential loss of future income or medical bills should be considered, but anything above and beyond that I’m going to have a problem with” I said.

“So would you have a problem awarding damages for pain and suffering” he shot back.

“Yes” was my answer…..

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2278232,00.html

An American I heard on the radio a few years ago referred to children as “trainee adults”, on the grounds that calling them children insulted and belittled them, and was a form of discrimination - childism. How I laughed at this ludicrous woman. I’ve thought of her twice in the past month, though not in the predictable and much-publicised context of little girls whose mothers allow them to put on lipstick and dress up in sexually alluring clothes. I grant that this is a disturbing example of adult traineeship, but there are others I’ve recently come across, of a different kind, which worry me just as much. The first was the news that Scotland is soon to establish a system of “children’s juries”, under which children who commit relatively minor offences would be sentenced by their peers - other kids of more or less the same age. Such a scheme is said to be working well in New York, which of course doesn’t mean that it will succeed in Scotland (or indeed England, where occasional discussions have taken place, fortunately leading nowhere). It’s a bad idea.

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http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment
/games_and_puzzles/word_watching/article3890894.ece

DICAST (c)

One of the 6,000 citizens chosen annually in Ancient Athens to try cases in the several law courts, where their functions combined those of the modern judge and jury. Dikázein means to judge.

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3876681.ece

The radio station, Nippon Cultural Broadcasting, says that it obtained the rare “educational” tape from the Osaka Detention Centre many years ago but believes that Japan can wait no longer for it to be aired. Japan has executed ten death-row inmates since December and the far-above-average pace has raised eyebrows.

At the moment, Japanese justice is conducted by professionals – cases are tried and punished by panels of judges. From next year Japan will introduce a form of jury service that will force members of the public to sit in judgment on serious criminal trials for the first time.

Tatsuya Mori, one of Japan’s few authors to address the subject of capital punishment, applauded the macabre broadcast. “The jury system is to start but the public has no idea how a real execution works and has never engaged in a proper debate on the subject. If the Ministry of Justice is trying to hide the reality of it, it is up to the media to expose it.”

The broadcast is likely to highlight many other issues within the Japanese justice system, which relies heavily on the confessions of those in the dock and has a conviction rate above 90 per cent for many crimes.

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http://forums.myspace.com/t/3894245.aspx?fuseaction=forums.viewthread&PageIndex=1&SortOrder=0

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but its as close as I can find,anybody think leaving your fate to 12 people who often dont know what they are doing and dont want top be there is a bad idea? More about this in my blog.

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http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news/policebeat.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-05-08-0156.html

Samuel J.T. Moore III lost his bid yesterday to inspect the record of multijurisdictional grand jury’s meetings before the raid of his strip club in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom.

The search, executed early Feb. 24, netted potential evidence that included a videotape that prosecutors say shows Moore having sex with a minor and a woman.

However, Moore isn’t ending his efforts to inspect the grand-jury transcripts, despite yesterday’s ruling by Judge Richard D. Taylor Jr. of Richmond Circuit Court.

Moore’s attorney, Michael Morchower, said he may appeal the decision or file a request to argue his case in federal court, where he said the rules of pretrial discovery are broader than in state court.

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http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou080507_rm_pottrial_.d90a2c60.html

Attornies in the case had narrowed the jury pool down to 20 people when they took a 45 minute break.

When the break was over, 49-year-old Cornelia Turner Mayo didn’t return to Judge Sherman Ross’ courtroom.

Turns out she was on a smoking break — but what she was allegedly smoking was illegal.

“I’ve had prospective jurors get lost before, but it never occurred to me that they might be getting ready for a marijuana trial by, allegedly, smoking marijuana,” Judge Ross told the Houston Chronicle.

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http://badassurl.blogspot.com/2008/05/history-of-jury-duty-brought-to-you-by.html

Now it’s Dianne Sawyer! I bet the South Dakota court doesn’t have this kind of star power for their jury duty video.

And now for a who’s-who of the courtroom, featuring “the opposite of the stereotypical person for each job!”:

- the black female judge!
- the white male stenographer!
- the racially ambiguous cops!
- the black dude and white woman lawyers (hey, it’s just like the democratic primary!)

“If you are excused during [jury selection] it is in no way a reflection on your intelligence or integrity.” … Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to dismiss the really smart people.

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http://jmortonmusings.blogspot.com/2008/05/bifurcation-of-liability-and-damages.html

In Kovach v. Kovach, 2008 CanLII 20331 (ON S.C.), released online today, the Court held that, in rare cases, even a jury trial could be bifurcated into liability and damages.

This is a significant point as many counsel were of the view that a jury trial cannot be so bifurcated.

The Court held:

[21] The Master, in this case, dismissed the defendants’ bifurcation motion based on the authorities, including Duffy, holding that the power to split a trial may not be executed, when a jury notice is filed. She did not consider the merits of the defendants’ motion. In my view, the learned Master erred in her interpretation of judicial authority and in not considering the merits of the motion. A case management Master has jurisdiction to order bifurcation as part of the case management process which is designed to facilitate early and fair settlements and bring proceedings expeditiously to a just determination while allowing sufficient time for the conduct of the proceeding: Rule 77.02 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 194. See, Unwin v. Brothers 2005 CanLII 23337 (ON S.C.), (2005), 76 O.R. (3d) 453 (S.C.J.).
…

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http://ourlatinamerica.blogspot.com/2008/05/brazil-jury-overturns-verdict-in-nun.html

A Brazilian jury acquitted a rancher who was convicted last year in the killing of nun/activist Dorothy Stang. Vitalmiro Vastos de Moura was sent to twenty years in jail along with Rayfran das Neves for killing Stang. Yet de Moura was set free with testimony from das Neves who claimed that de Moura did not give him the gun used to murder Stang in 2005.

Stang’s family was understandably disappointed with the court’s decision:

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http://blogs.birminghampost.net/business/2008/05/should-we-abolish-trial-by-jur.html

I have just completed two weeks’ jury service at Birmingham Crown Court. At the end of a case, the judge thanked us for having done our job and made the point that lots of people think we should get rid of jury trials. The judge in my case thought that was a bad idea - he is a fan of the jury system - but he did get me thinking.

Currently there is a split between the judge’s role and the jury’s. Judges decide on what law is relevant - can that bit of evidence be introduced? The jury decides the facts - is the defendant guilty or innocent? The alternative would be to adopt the procedure used in a number of European countries where the judge decides everything - facts and law.

There are a couple of significant downsides to jury service. The most obvious is that it is incredibly disruptive to jurors’ lives - both at work and at home. The normal length of service is two weeks but complicated (and more important) cases can last a lot longer. It used to be that there were lots of ways that you could avoid serving. This tended to mean that, instead of being tried by a jury of your peers drawn from a genuine cross-section of society, alleged criminals were tried by a jury made up of people who weren’t working for whatever reason, students (out of term time) and people with sympathetic and publicly-spirited employers. Certain jobs - solicitors being one - were completely exempt.

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http://criminal.lawyers.com/news-headline/Jury:-He-stalked-star–Obsessed-with-Uma-Thurman,-former-mental-patient-faces-psychiatric-evaluation-before-he-is-sentenced-l:787409021.html?method=rss

One juror said that it was Jordan’s uninvited visits to Thurman’s home that sunk him on the harassment charge.

“He stepped over the line when he went to her house,” said the juror, who identified herself only as Marsha.

A caterer from Greenwich Village for rock concerts, she said Thurman’s life seemed changed by the stalking.

“I felt very sorry for her because she has lost her freedom forever,” she said of Thurman.

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http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB121012276342372549.html

We read through all of the package’s contents again. We still couldn’t agree.

The woman who worked as a rock-show caterer said the card was disturbing, and that Mr. Jordan was a smart, manipulative man who knew what he was doing. He had graduated with a degree in English literature from the University of Chicago. By marking out some words, she said, he indicated that he knew what he was sending was inappropriate.

A juror who works as a statistician compared the situation to writing emails to a woman at work: If I did that, he said — even if I hoped it would make her like me — it would be inappropriate and get me fired.

I didn’t agree it was Mr. Jordan’s intent to harass, annoy, threaten or alarm Ms. Thurman with that card. Sitting a few seats away from Mr. Jordan as he testified in his own defense, I saw him as a lovesick individual who was trying to prove himself to her with these cards and objects, which he described as artworks.

A very bad idea, but was it criminal?

One juror, who works at an art school in Brooklyn, brought up an example of a little boy pulling the ponytail of a little girl to get her attention. Even though the boy likes the girl, he’s still trying to annoy her.

We talked about Ms. Thurman. She said on the stand that she was very frightened when she read the contents of the package. As she testified, I was struck by how she wouldn’t look at Mr. Jordan. At one point, leaving the stand, she seemed to hide her head in the crook of her arm.

But was she genuinely afraid? While we believed her testimony, we discussed whether Ms. Thurman could have exaggerated her fear. The fact that she was a famous movie star made us partly charmed, partly suspicious. One juror jokingly said Ms. Thurman isn’t that great an actress, but that her delivery on the witness stand was the most heartfelt performance he’d ever seen her give.

Another juror said that, because Ms. Thurman is a celebrity, she should be used to people following her every move. Still another juror reminded us that we shouldn’t consider Ms. Thurman any different than an average citizen.

We also discussed Mr. Jordan’s actions after he delivered the package. If he had backed off then, we felt he wouldn’t have been guilty of stalking. He would have been an obsessed fan suffering from unrequited love.

In fact, he did back off: He stopped contacting the actress for nearly two years.

But then, in August 2007, he resurfaced in New York City. He walked the streets until he spotted her home, based on a photo of it he had found online. He strolled through the front gate and sat on her stoop. He rang the door bell from early in the morning to late at night.

Amid all this, Mr. Jordan also slipped a note through the mail slot, addressed to Ms. Thurman. In it, he wrote that he would want to kill himself if he saw Ms. Thurman out with another man. Mr. Jordan also wrote that he was giving Ms. Thurman his permission to spy on him.

This decision was easy for us: The nonstop doorbell-ringing, accompanied by a letter like this, clearly sounded like intent to harass, annoy, threaten or alarm. We decided on a guilty charge of one count of aggravated harassment.

We quickly acquitted on another charge of aggravated harassment. Then we went home for the day.

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http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/05/07/wsjs-emily-steel-reports-on-her-experience-as-a-juror-in-uma-trial/?mod=WSJBlogprint/

Steel reports that the stalker trial, which has transfixed New York, at times seemed like it was stalking her and her fellow jurors — metaphorically speaking — as the trial’s characters seeped into her dreams. “I was talking with Ms. Thurman,” writes Steel, “although — as is the case with dreams — I can’t recall precisely what we were discussing. Walking down the street, in my dream, I saw Mr. Jordan stroll by. . . .Tuesday morning, when we reconvened, a couple of my fellow jurors said they woke up sick to their stomachs. Another burst into the room saying he’d seen the drawings sketched by the court artists, and that they’d done a good job depicting us.”

For the details of the jury’s deliberations, here’s Steel’s story. For more on the verdict, here’s an NYT story.

Read the rest… [See especially the comments re jury selection.]

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http://rickmsmith.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/mayor-halloran-answers-the-call-for-jury-duty-not-surprisingly-passed-over-as-juror/

Mayor Kay Halloran recalled her days as a practicing attorney this week and the times in which clients would call her asking for some advice on how to get out of jury duty.

Halloran said her answer was always the same: Do your duty. Her idea was something like this: Wouldn’t you want someone like you in the jury box if you were on trial?

So early Monday morning, there was the mayor, joining in a large pool of fellow Linn County citizen who had turned out at the Linn County Courthouse to perform jury duty.

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http://www.operationrescue.org/?p=926

Topeka, KS — The Kansas Supreme Court ruled against late-term abortionist George R. Tiller who had asked the Court to rule that a citizen’s called grand jury was unconstitutional and should be dismissed. Instead the Court found that such grand juries are indeed constitutional.

In the same opinion, the Court ruled that subpoenas issued by the grand jury in their investigation into illegal abortions done by Tiller and his associates should be further reviewed by the Sedgwick County District Court to insure that the subpoenas are not overly broad or harassing in nature.

The grand jury issued subpoenas to Tiller in January for 2,000 late-term abortion records, a request that was later reduced to 50 records randomly chosen for each of the last five years. The subpoenas specifically state that all patient identifying information should be redacted before being sent to the grand jury.

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Read the Kansas Supreme Court’s ruling…

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-hope-weiner/pellicano-trial-confusing_b_100401.html

Specifically, the jury has asked for some clarification on jury instructions relating to Mark Arneson which touched off an argument between the defense and the prosecution as to how to respond. The jury sent out a note to the judge wondering if they could have additional clarification on what intent is required on charges of honest services wire fraud. After argument, the judge told the jury that they couldn’t have any additional clarification. There was also a note on the identity theft charges and whether they each had to affect interstate commerce. The question from the jury was basically “does each alleged act for purposes of RICO have to affect interstate commerce?” The answer from the judge, “with respect to each alleged RICO act charging identify theft, the possession, transfer or use had to affect interstate commerce.” There was an additional request this morning as to whether the jury could have an example of a RQH code run and the court said no.

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http://www.thepost.ohiou.edu/Articles/News/2008/05/06/24336/

Jurors aren’t supposed to have any connection to the people involved in the trial. But that can be harder than it sounds.

During jury selection for the murder trial of Ronald Hendrickson II, Judge L. Alan Goldsberry dismissed two corrections officers who guarded him in jail, a nurse who treated him after the incident that ended in his ex-girlfriend’s death and a Hocking College alumna who once worked as his ex-girlfriend’s boss.

Those four people were among the 15 potential jurors excused during yesterday’s series of interviews. Hendrickson was charged last April with aggravated murder after his ex-girlfriend, Jodi Blankenship, was found stabbed to death in a house they shared with four others.

Jury selection ensures that a jury is as impartial as possible, said Patricia Gunn, a former Massachusetts assistant attorney general and professor of African-American studies at Ohio University.

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http://vindauga.typepad.com/vindauga/2008/05/jury-duty.html

We were told the case would take 7 to 10 days. Frankly, it didn’t sound all that compelling and the thought of rearranging my life for essentially two work weeks for it frustrated me a little. But the truth is, I don’t mind serving on a jury. It’s part of being a good citizen, yada, yada, yada. I just want the case to teach me something besides nuances in insurance claims.

I’m amazed that while I’ve been called a number of times, there are many of you who have never been called. I get that it’s random, but after a couple of times can’t there be a mark next to my name that says “She’s done her time, only call her for something really good from now on.”

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http://www.beloblog.com/ProJo_Blogs/newsblog/archives/2008/05/jury_selection_8.html

To aid in the screening process, the court sent out 18-page questionnaires to would-be jurors about five weeks ago. The questionnaires not only asked whether jurors knew any of the key players in the case, but also probed their feelings about the high cost of prescription drugs and their general knowledge of corruption in Rhode Island.

“The health-care industry is such a profit center, there should be reform,” one prospective juror told the judge today. Nevertheless, she said that she could be impartial.

Many prospective jurors said that they were generally aware of the allegations involving Celona, Woonsocket-based CVS — the nation’s biggest drugstore chain — Blue Cross, Roger Williams, and two other legislators who have been linked to CVS, former House Majority Leader Gerard Martineau and former Senate President William Irons. But they said they didn’t know specifics, and felt that they could keep an open mind in weighing the evidence.

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http://www.justicetalking.org/viewprogram.asp?progID=651

Overview

The right to a trial by a jury is guaranteed to criminal defendants by the Sixth Amendment. The Seventh Amendment extends the right to a jury trial to federal civil cases such as car accidents, contract disputes between corporations, and most discrimination or employment disputes. But there are many questions about how the system works. Who shows up to serve? Is there racial or other bias in the selection process or in jury deliberations? Join us for this edition of Justice Talking as we look at jury trials and jury service and ask whether this system is fair and effective.

[A series of audio presentations about jury selection, race issues, civil-jury verdicts, grand-jury reform and other jury issues.]

Listen to audio presentations…

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http://www.windypundit.com/archives/2008/05/motion_juries_another_radical.html

It seems to me that there’s a fundamental flaw with how the courts make decisions about trial motions. The general rule is that the jury is responsible for deciding the facts of the case—whether the defendant did the things for which he stands accused—but matters of law—such as what evidence can be presented to the jury—are decided by the judge.

I’m reasonably sure that makes sense. But when the legal principle behind a motion involves making a judgment about what a reasonable person would conclude under a specific set of circumstances…doesn’t that sound like the court is making a finding of fact? Shouldn’t the question be decided by a jury?

For a more concrete example, consider the situation where the police enter a house and find evidence of a crime. At trial, the defense tries to suppress the evidence because the police entered without a warrant. The prosecutor says they didn’t need a warrant because the owner let them in. The owner denies giving permission.

That’s a he-said/he-said situation, and it’s currently up to the judge to decide whether to believe the police or the defendant. But isn’t deciding credibility exactly the sort of thing we use juries for all the time? Shouldn’t the question of who to believe be presented to a jury?

Obviously, it can’t be the same jury that would hear the evidence if it’s allowed. We need a special jury to decide facts for motions. Perhaps the judge could convene a special motion jury.

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