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Jury Selection and High Profile Cases
Picking a jury is an important part of the trial process, but extremely important in high-profile cases.
July 28, 2011 /Law Enforcement PR News/ -- In the United States, if one is accused of a serious crime, the Sixth Amendment entitles one to a jury by one's peers.
Under the Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, you are entitled to a fair trial, but not a perfect one. The purpose of jury selection, from the perspective of a trial attorney, is to discover any bias and prejudice against the client, the attorney or the case.
Litigation carries with it many challenges, from quality of witnesses and evidence to where a case is heard and how long it may go on. However, one of the biggest challenges is that posed by jury selection. How a jury will decide a case is the wildcard in every trial.
How one goes about selecting a jury is one of the most complex responsibilities of a trial attorney. Everyone has bias. A trial attorney has to learn to deal with the bias and prejudice of potential jurors. Prejudice is easy. If someone said outright "I never trust ______," and your client is ______, a trial attorney knows they need to strike him or her from the jury pool. Unfortunately, many people won't disclose clear prejudice.
Teasing Out the Information
The attorney for the criminal defense must extract this information by skilled questioning and listening. One of the most important skills of a good trial lawyer is listening. While an attorney needs to remain in control with their questions, he or she must refrain from arguing their case during the jury selection, and allow the jurors to tell their stories.
At the end of the day, a trial is a story. And, an attorney who can put together a compelling narrative that fits the facts and accurately describes the events as the evidence demonstrates is also one who can listen to a juror and understand what that person is telling him or her -- directly and indirectly.
Different Every Time
Juries are complex for another reason beyond their individual composition; every jury is unique. They are composed of a number of individuals, of differing age, racial background, and life experience and they only come together to decide one case and one case alone. That same group will never be together again to decide another case.
This means there is never a "track record" for a particular jury. An attorney must choose jurors based on the attorney's experience working with other juries, but that ability is much more an art than a science. A skilled trial attorney learns a successful case is almost as much about knowing how to "read" a juror and jury, as it is about careful arguments and presentations of evidence.
Casey Anthony & Roger Clemens
When the defendant is famous, or a case is highly publicized, the challenge of assembling a fair jury is magnified. For a defense attorney, both the Casey Anthony case and the Roger Clemens case represent a challenge in assembling a jury that doesn't have preconceived opinions, bias and prejudice toward the defendants.
Casey Anthony's case resulted in "The Social-Media Trial of the Century," as Time magazine called it. The disappearance and death of Caylee Anthony and the murder trial of her mother, Casey Anthony, became a media firestorm, compared by some with the last "trial of the century," that of O.J. Simpson.
Casey Anthony's attorney apparently did his job properly. The first day of jury selection the majority of the 60 potential jurors were dismissed. Not only did they need to select jurors who could be impartial, but also those who could leave work for the weeks the trial could last.
Burdens on Jurors
In many high profile cases, the trial can last weeks (the O.J. Simpson trial went on for almost six months), and this places an enormous burden on jurors. From obtaining leave from work to finding day care for their children, it's not easy to find people willing and able to serve.
Roger Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winning baseball pitcher, recently stood trial for lying to Congress over his testimony on the use of performance enhancing drugs.
His attorney faced challenges similar to those faced by Casey Anthony's attorney during jury selection, in terms of media coverage. The use of performance enhancing drugs by Major League Baseball players rose to such a high level that Congress held a high-profile hearing and it's that testimony that has gotten Clemens in trouble.
Opinions on the use of performance-enhancing drugs range from "Baseball players all used steroids" to "He may have been a victim of team doctors," who would do anything they could to help the team win. His defense attorney had to navigate between those extremes, to find a fair jury for his client.
Roger Clemens' trial ended in a mistrial.
Selecting a Jury and Selecting an Attorney
Because of the importance of the jury selection, choosing an attorney who understands juries and how to work with them is of the utmost importance. In criminal cases, where your very liberty is at risk, finding an attorney who has the experience and sophistication in trial practice is absolutely necessary.
Article provided by Bauer Crider Pellegrino & Parry
Visit us at www.floridadefense.com
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