The National Center For State Courts, the people who bring you the spirited weekly newsletter Jur-E Bulletin, were already making vast quantities of solid information about trials and juries available on the Internet -- so the generosity of their latest project isn't surprising.
The “State-of-the-States Survey of Jury Improvement Efforts," summarized in a press release last week, "is the most comprehensive study of jury policies, operations and practices ever conducted." The 84-page paper synthesizes three separate efforts:
- "Documenting jury improvement efforts and the legal infrastructure for jury operations and practices on statewide basis for all 50 states and the District of Columbia;
- "Surveying 1,396 state trial courts about the terms and conditions of jury service in those localities; and
- "Compiling trial reports submitted by judges and lawyers describing the practices employed in nearly 12,000 jury trials conducted in state and federal courts between 2002 and 2006."
One aspect of the study, its comparison of how long voir dire takes in each of the 50 states, was widely picked up in the press -- especially in the slowest state, Connecticut. There, individual sequestered voir dire is a constitutional mandate, and so the process takes a median 16 hours, four times as long as runner-up California. (South Carolina gets it done in half an hour.)
You've got questions . . .
You can do far more with this study, though, than settle your next bar bet on the land speed record for voir dire. Any time you are approaching trial in a new jurisdiction, and any time you want to suggest that a judge consider changing a familiar jury practice, this is the place to start.
Which courts let jurors take notes? Which ones give them notepads so they can? (You'd think those questions would have the same answer, but they don't.) Where do jurors get to ask questions? Where do lawyers get information about jurors ahead of time? Which courts give jurors copies of the written instructions? Which ones read them the instructions before closing? Which jury practices appear to affect deliberation time?
If you have a question about local jury practices, it is almost certainly answered here.
(Photo by Tom at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tom1231/254465359/; license details there.)
