What a week. We'll remember it more for its non-jury news -- the ringing, historic Boumediene opinion (Gideon here on why it's a great moment, Scott Greenfield here on why it doesn't help actual Guantanemo prisoners that much), the odd, jarring Judge Kozinski news (Volokh here seems to speak for most legal bloggers, but likely not for the general public), Tim Russert's way-too-soon passing today, and here in the Midwest, enough rain to float away an entire lake in central Wisconsin.
But as Friday ended, the R. Kelly jury in Chicago made it a jury news week too. They watched a homemade sex tape of a guy they decided was indeed Mr. Kelly with a female who was clearly very young, and 15 witnesses testified that she was a girl they recognized and that she was 14 at the time. They watched as the prosecution played it over and over. And they acquitted Kelly -- in large part, Time reports in a juror interview, because the girl herself denied the encounter at first and never testified in the trial. Josh Levin of Slate watched the trial and couldn't believe it. "[I]t is possible that the defense team finally succeeded in driving the jurors completely insane," Levin says in a terrific recap of the trial.
And there were as usual good blog posts on juries and trials:
--Elliott Wilcox at Winning Trial Advocacy Techniques is always excellent, this week on why, when, and exactly how to pause when we're speaking to juries.
--Matthew Homann at The Nonbillable Hour has a tip for good graphics that you'll remember long after you read it.
--Patrick Lamb, always the gruff, smart teacher, accepts no excuses in litigation budgeting.
--Jury consultants Chris Dominic at Tsongas Litigation Consulting Blog and Edward Schwartz at The Jury Box Blog are both back (as I am) from last weekend's annual meeting of the American Society of Trial Consultants, and they both have new blog posts: Chris explains why litigators can't be squeamish about technology anymore, and Edward is inspired and inspiring about pro bono trial consulting.
--Evan Schaeffer explains why discovery depositions can rarely be used as substantive evidence in Illinois.
--What About Clients? has some awfully kind words about this blog, but it's Anne Skove at court-o-rama who is quickly and deservedly becoming the most popular Anne in the litigation blogosphere. Here she announces the recipient of this year's ABA Jury System Impact Award.
--Juror blog of the week, maybe the year: Hinda, a feng shui consultant who writes at a blog called the Enerch'i Sisters. "The Wealth/Power Gua was mostly unoccupied," she explains, "although some of the jury seats and the witness box could have occupied some of the periphery. The judge was located in Fame and Reputation. Partnership was unoccupied. Sitting in Creativity was the judge’s delightful clerk."
--Finally and most movingly, Victoria Pynchon's stunning series of posts about her father's illness at Settle It Now Negotiation Blog ended this week with a memorial to him. It will be a long time before you see someone confront pain and loss with the courage and perspective that Vickie has, somehow managing to engage with it personally while at the same time seeking a larger lesson. Vickie, best to you and yours.
(Photo by Ho John Lee at http://www.flickr.com/photos/hjl/101443399/; license details there.)
