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Tips for conducting post-trial juror interviews
By Courtney Collins To be a fly on a wall during a jury deliberation is perhaps a dream for most attorneys. While on some level this dream can be achieved through jury research, including focus groups and mock trials, the inner workings of the case’s actual jury often remains a mystery. The answer to the […]
Trends in litigation: jurors and safety
BY JULIE CAMPANINI BridgeTower Media Newswires It is no secret to defendants that jurors expect products to be safe and that companies that fail to follow their own policies are vulnerable. A trend in litigation is to move safety to the forefront and use fear as a tactic to move jurors — the “reptile tactic.” […]
Suit seeks to block prosecutor from excluding black jurors
Four black voters and a branch of the NAACP sued a Mississippi prosecutor on Monday, asking a federal judge to order him to stop excluding African Americans from juries. The lawsuit against District Attorney Doug Evans is an outgrowth of a case where the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a murder conviction of an African American […]
Juror goes into labor, resulting in murder case mistrial
A mistrial in a North Carolina murder case has been declared, as a juror went into premature labor after deliberations had begun. Citing a release from the Mecklenburg County district attorney’s office, The Charlotte Observer cites a release that says deliberations began Wednesday in the first-degree murder trial of 32-year-old Lionel Octavius Price, but the […]
Defendant charged for texting, attempting to bribe juror
CHARLOTTE (AP) A search warrant says a defendant in North Carolina texted a juror while in court and tried to bribe her. Thirty-four-year-old Wesley Westbrook is charged with harassment and offering a bribe in connection with the case. Westbrook was in court in September when the judge asked potential jurors if there was any reason […]
Criminal Practice – Lawyer Did Not Challenge Juror’s Cryptic Comment
U.S. v. Powell (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-058-17, 10 pp.) (Niemeyer, J.) No. 15-6232, March 1, 2017; USDC at Raleigh, N.C. (Fox, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: A defendant convicted on federal drug and firearms charges is not entitled to habeas relief on a claim that his counsel was constitutionally ineffective when she failed to tell the […]
Beats all you never saw
Senior U.S. District Court Judge James Fox has been on the bench for 34 years. And he began practicing law in 1957. So when Fox says he’s witnessing something in court for the first time it’s noteworthy. During what was supposed to be the beginning of Wayne County Superior Court Judge Arnold Jones’ bribery and […]
NC court overturns sentence for juror who used cellphone
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A trial judge erred when he sentenced a jury foreman to spend 30 days in a North Carolina jail for taking notes on his cellphone, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. The unanimous decision by the three-judge panel reversed and vacated the sentence for Christopher Korfmann, who spent six nights […]
Supreme Court throws out death sentence from all-white jury
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled decisively in favor of a death-row inmate in Georgia on Monday, chastising state prosecutors for improperly keeping African-Americans off the jury that convicted him of killing a white woman. The justices ruled 7-1 in favor of death row inmate Timothy Tyrone Foster in underscoring the importance of rules […]
Novel approach to juror screening tested in court
Any attorney who has tried an intellectual property case knows that presenting the evidence in a way that jurors fully comprehend is no simple task.
Jurors now can get psychological counseling
CHARLOTTE (AP) — People who serve on juries are sometimes exposed to graphic or traumatizing evidence, and now North Carolina wants to help them cope with that responsibility. The Charlotte Observer reported that the Administrative Office of the Courts has started a statewide pilot program to help jurors who experience emotional or psychological problems because […]
Jurors, money and TV: a bad combination
Raleigh publicist Rick French caused a stir when he approached television networks saying he represented a juror in the recently ended Casey Anthony case and his client would not grant an interview without compensation – reportedly as much as $50,000. French declined to specify the juror and has said there was no price named. So far, no juror has received a check for explaining why the jury i[...]
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