Jury wisdom from other people in the last couple of weeks includes:
1. You're always in front of the jury. J.D. Hull of What About Clients? tells a cautionary tale to remind us that "[j]urors are watching you, your attending GC, client representative and/or your witnesses AND your associates and paralegals like hawks: in and out of session, in the halls, in the back of the courtroom, restrooms, parking lots, restaurants. Very little is missed." He's right: if you're anywhere near the courthouse, you're in front of the jury.
2. A reluctant juror in Florida. Bob Kelley of Florida Jury Selection Blog ("the cure for the common voir dire") flags a new Florida case on "a frustrating and all-too-common reality of voir dire": the juror who's trying to get sent home.
3. How's that trial notebook? Evan Schaeffer of Illinois Trial Practice Weblog reminds us that a trial notebook, started early, is a powerful focusing tool -- and he gives details on how to put it together.
4. Mark Bennett liveblogs Racehorse Haynes. It doesn't get better than that.
5. Mark Bennett (same guy) wants to start a voir dire school. Listen to his idea:
There are companies that provide ordinary people for focus groups and mock juries; why not use one to gather a mock jury panel? By my math, a panel of 24 people for a day would cost $3,000. Add in room rent, refreshments, and a pro bono faculty of talented lawyers, and a day of jury selection school could be produced for less than $4,000.
If you took 12 lawyers at a time as students, the cost per student would be less than $350 per day. In an eight-hour day, each student would get a half hour or more before the panel, receive suggestions and critiques from the faculty, and learn from her fellow students' performances and critiques.
I'm in.
6. A 120-page juror questionnaire. It's being used in a murder trial in Texas. I don't have a copy yet, but Luke Gilman discusses it here in his Blawgraphy.
7. Blue brain, red brain? Daniel Solove of Concurring Opinions reports here on the new study suggesting that "[l]iberals and conservatives think in fundamentally different ways." "I always thought that the differences between liberals and conservatives could be explained by the fact that liberals are just smarter," he says. Cognitive Daily critiques the same study here, and isn't convinced.
Photo by Ho John Lee at http://www.flickr.com/photos/hjl/101443399/; license details there.)