A recent jury summons prompted to me to think about judges being called to jury service.
Read More »Tag Archives: Jury
Five most common faults of trial lawyers
One of the great privileges of being a judge is to be able to speak with jurors after a trial, to thank them and to ask them questions about what they had just witnessed.
Read More »Appeals court rejects dozing juror appeal in assault case
A Wisconsin appeals court says a former Milwaukee correctional officer was properly convicted of sexual assault even though he claimed one of his jurors dozed off during his trial.
Read More »Finding fair jurors in Tsarnaev case a ‘quixotic undertaking’
Relying on an analysis of questionnaires filled out by 1,373 prospective jurors, accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has filed a third motion to transfer his case to another venue.
Read More »Panic attack, bad back: Juror excuses often vary widely
One prospective juror said she had a panic attack. Another claimed to have a bad back. A third is in the military and worried he would be deployed during the trial of Colorado theater shooter James Holmes.
Read More »Walker signs 12-person jury mandate
Governor Scott Walker has signed a bill that erases six-person juries in misdemeanor cases.
Read More »Jury consultants key part of early case assessment
Most litigators understand the benefits of early case assessment. It helps their clients plan, among other things, budgets, discovery and strategies for resolving the disputes.
Read More »Senate approves 12-member jury bill
The state Senate unanimously passed a bill Tuesday that would mandate 12-member juries for all criminal trials.
Read More »State Senate poised to pass jury bill
The Wisconsin Senate is set to pass a bill that would do away with six-person juries in misdemeanor cases.
Read More »12-member jury proposal moves forward (UPDATE)
The state Assembly passed a measure Tuesday to ensure that all criminal defendants in Wisconsin can have their case tried before a 12-member jury.
Read More »Walker dismissed after serving on jury (UPDATE)
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker served two days as Juror No. 20 on a personal-injury case, but he was dismissed just before deliberations began Wednesday because the CEO of a company involved in the case had donated to his campaign.
Read More »Involvement, practice lead to better jury research
After almost 20 years as a jury consultant, I have seen, talked about and/or been a party to many types of jury research; some great, some terrible and a lot in between.
Read More »Former judge proposes 12-person jury bill
A Milwaukee assemblyman has introduced legislation requiring all criminal juries to have 12 members because of the six-member jury that heard George Zimmerman’s case in Florida.
Read More »Legislation would require 12-person juries
A Milwaukee assemblyman proposed a bill Tuesday that would require all juries in criminal cases to consist of 12 people.
Read More »Expert: Holmes jury pool among largest ever in US
A trial expert says the 5,000 people expected to get a jury summons in the Colorado theater shooting trial would be among the highest number ever in the nation.
Read More »Door County homicide trial ends in hung jury
The trial of an Illinois man accused of killing his friend and her unborn baby at a resort in Wisconsin's Door County has ended in a hung jury.
Read More »How to alienate a jury (without even trying)
Winning a jury trial requires effective presentation of the evidence and argument. But let’s face it: You’re a lot more likely to win if the jurors like and trust you.
Read More »Jury selected for inquest into custody death
A jury has been selected to hear the inquest into the death of a suspect while in Milwaukee police custody.
Read More »Top 10 jury verdicts of 2012
The overall size of the United States' top 10 jury verdicts rose again in 2012.
Read More »US Supreme Court to hear case on jury’s decisions on increasing minimum sentence
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether existing precedent should be overruled to require a jury to decide facts which increase a mandatory minimum sentence.
Read More »Bill aims to end LGBT bias in federal jury selection
A bill that would prohibit discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered individuals in the federal jury selection process has been introduced in the Senate.
Read More »Jury convicts man of murdering woman in Wis.
A jury has convicted a 45-year-old man of murdering a woman whose body was found in La Crosse.
Read More »Jury convicts man of killing elderly woman
A jury has convicted a man of killing a 93-year-old woman in northern Wisconsin in a case authorities said had satanic overtones.
Read More »Trial lessons: Juries see more than just the evidence
Don’t wear a pinky ring. Don’t wear monogrammed shirts. Don’t drive your fancy sports car to the courthouse. These are some of the rules lawyers follow if they don’t want to alienate jurors on Day 1.
Runaway juror fined $300 after Mexican getaway
A runaway juror returned to Milwaukee from a Mexican getaway and headed back to court. But this time, it was to face the judge.
Read More »New model jury instructions target social media use
In an effort to deter jurors from using social media and smartphones to communicate about or conduct research on the case on which they serve, a Judicial Conference committee has updated federal model jury instructions.
It’s just Google: Keeping jurors offline to stay in line
Jurors who have a hard time putting their Internet habits on hold during jury service need strong guidance from trial judges, said a jury research analyst.
Trial lawyers double as entertainers
As jurors demand slicker, speedier, sound bite-like presentations of trial evidence, lawyers are hiring visual artists, computer graphic designers and illustrators to transform piles of documents into light, sound and images.
Study finds ‘striking’ difference in conviction rates based on jury pool’s racial makeup
A study has revealed that the racial makeup of the pool from which juries are selected influences conviction rates – and that having even one African-American member in the pool from which a jury is drawn nearly eliminates the difference.
Read More »THE DARK SIDE: Appeal to what is best in jurors
Many years ago, a former Alabama congressman told me the following story: