Three new jury questionnaires are in the Deliberations library. They all cover basic juror information, plus the specific topics I've listed here and probably a couple you'll think I should have listed separately. As always, these are useful in preparing voir dire questions as well as in drafting your own questionnaire.
- State v. Warren Jeffs, the 2007 Utah sex crimes trial of the leader of a Mormon sect (correction: polygamous sect, see the comment), alleging that he arranged the forced marriage of two young girls. They finished picking the jury last week (defense counsel reportedly asked, "Can you look in his eyes?") and the trial is in progress. The questionnaire is 11 pages long and covers publicity and attitudes about the Mormon church. There is an unusually thorough list of questions amounting almost to jury instructions, telling potential jurors what the law is and asking whether they can follow it. Thanks to Arizona trial consultant Dennis Elias for sending this.
- State v. Moe Gibbs, the 2007 scheduled North Dakota murder trial of a "former jailer" accused of killing a college student. The trial is set to start in October 2007, after an earlier jury deadlocked in the summer. The questionnaire is 34 pages and covers basic topics including race. Many of the questions are impressively phrased in ways that should make them easy to answer in a meaningful way: "Are you a good judge of character? Why or why not?" "Have you ever felt in fear of your life?" "Is there any racial or ethnic group that you do not feel comfortable being around?" (This was pieced together from a local newspaper web site where it was posted one page at a time, so skip through the page list at the beginning.)
- Rochester Development, the proposed questionnaire in a commercial civil case in Minnesota in which a real estate development company owned by Arabs sued the architect of a hotel it owned. The proposed questionnaire is 10 pages; the judge used a shorter questionnaire. The case was tried after September 11, so the questionnaire deals with a rare combination of subjects: attitudes toward Arabs and Muslims, and business fraud issues. It also has a chart to keep track of when jurors are reporting their friends' and loved ones' experiences and when they're reporting their own. Thanks to Diane Wiley of the National Jury Project for sending this.
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Can't-resist note: is it just me, or does sect leader Warren Jeffs look strikingly -- really strikingly -- like Gen. David Petraeus? I don't mean this as a political comment, honest.
