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    Jury Research Blog

    Gale Burns

    Recent Posts

    Member (Jury) Selection in General Courts Martial

    Posted by Gale Burns on Mon, Sep 9, 2013 @ 16:09 PM

    September 9, 2013

    Jeffrey T. Frederick, Ph.D.

    I was recently asked by the American Society of Trial Consultants (ASTC) to guest post on their
    "Deliberations" blog and here is the result.

    IN A WORLD . . .

    where the convening authority selects the entire pool of potential panel members . . .

    where the defense and prosecution each have potentially only one peremptory challenge, even in a death penalty case . . .

    where challenges for cause are the only realistic method for removing potentially biased members . . .

    No this is not the recent movie by the same name, IN A WORLD . . . , that opened in movie theaters last month. This is the world of general courts martial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). . . . For the remainder of the post, click here.

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    Topics: military jury, convening authority, random selection, deliberations, American Society of Trial Consultants, voir dire in military trials, military court, Jeff Frederick, voir dire, courts-martial, UCMJ, liberal grant mandate, military courts, member selection, peremptory challenge, challenge for cause

    See You on the Internet—Uh, I Mean, in Court: On Litigation-Based Websites

    Posted by Gale Burns on Mon, Nov 5, 2012 @ 15:11 PM

     November 5, 2012

    Jeffrey T. Frederick, Ph.D.

    A relatively new strategy by litigants is to take their cases to the public, not through press conferences but through establishing a voice on the Internet. True, this is not new. Martha Stewart and Michael Jackson had websites that supported their legal cases, and former Chicago Governor Rob Blagoivich had a Facebook page. Discussions of these activities can be found in Chapter 8, Jurors and the Internet, of my book.

    Several interesting developments have occurred since the early days of litigant PR websites. First, getting the message out is not as cost-prohibitive as in the early years. It is relatively inexpensive to develop a basic website, and it costs no money to establish a Facebook, MySpace, Google+, or Twitter account. For example, lawyers for George Zimmerman (the person charged in the death of Trayvon Martin) have established websites for information and fundraising, along with a Twitter account for updates and responses to activities concerning the case. While a Facebook page was established by the defense, it was later suspended because of the vitriolic comments posted by supporters and opponents of Mr. Zimmerman. In an interesting twist on the concept of litigant websites, the defendant (Reeco Richardson) in a stolen vehicle case has a website in his subsequent civil lawsuit filed against Maryland state and local officials for the alleged ramming by a police cruiser of a stolen vehicle in which he was a passenger. Attorneys for the defendant asserted that their website was in response to postings of case information on the Montgomery County Police Department website.

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    Topics: jury research, Internet litigant websites, less cost-prohibitive, more detailed information, possible juror tainting, Jeff Frederick

    What Is It About "Don't Twitter" You Do Not Understand?

    Posted by Gale Burns on Mon, Dec 19, 2011 @ 16:12 PM

    December 14, 2011

    Jeffrey T. Frederick, Ph.D.

    A murder conviction and death penalty sentence were reversed and remanded in part because of tweets by a juror during trial. In a potentially game-changing decision, the Arkansas Supreme Court in Erickson Dimas-Martinez v. Arkansas, addressed an issue different from many other cases of Internet abuse by jurors. The issue facing the court was whether a juror's violation of the court's instruction by tweeting about the case denied the defendant a fair trial, not whether the content of the posts reflected bias or prejudice against the defendant. As such, the facts of tweeting and its timing during the trial proceedings are of interest.

    Prior to opening statements, the trial court gave an instruction which included:

    When you're back in the jury room, it's fine with me to use your cell phone if you need to call home or call business. Just remember, never discuss this case over your cell phone. And don't Twitter anybody about this case. That did happen down in Washington County and almost had a, a $15 million law verdict overthrown. So don't Twitter. Don't use your cell phone to talk to anybody about this case other than perhaps the length of the case or something like that.

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    Topics: jury research, Jeffrey T. Frederick, death penalty sentence reversed, Erickson Dimas-Martinez v. Arkansas, tweeting, bias to defendant, juror failure to follow court instruction was prej, failure to dismiss juror was abuse of discretion, potential for Internet abuse, instructions need to be more concrete, specific, repeatedly delivered, possible jurors' signing of pledge, U.S. v. Biktor Bout

    Did I Say That? Another Reason to Do Online Checks on Potential (and Trial) Jurors

    Posted by Gale Burns on Thu, Oct 13, 2011 @ 16:10 PM

    October 13, 2011

    Jeffrey T. Frederick, Ph.D.

    Sure, in highly publicized cases, we all ask potential jurors whether they have expressed an opinion to others or, perhaps, written a letter to the editor regarding the case. And we tend to rely on the answers jurors give—although I have been involved in a death penalty trial where a potential juror, as editor of a local newspaper, had "forgotten" that he had written an editorial supporting capital punishment. Fortunately, the defense attorney had a copy of the editorial.

    The Internet has vastly increased the opportunity for potential jurors to comment on cases before, during, and after trials. Jurors cannot only write letters to the editor, but they can voice their opinions on media websites and social networking sites (SNSs), e.g., Facebook and Twitter. And they do.

    Ah, I Forgot!

    A potential juror was recently held in contempt in an Oklahoma murder trial where Jerome Ersland, a pharmacist, had shot a robber five times after the robber lay wounded and motionless on the floor. While the potential juror had said that she had not expressed an opinion on the case, the defense discovered that she had made comments critical of the pharmacist on the local television's Facebook site six months before the trial. For example:

    "First hell yeah he need to do sometime!!! The young fella was already died from the gun shot wound to the head, then he came back with a diffrent gun and shot him 5 more times. Come let's be 4real it didn't make no sense!"

    The potential juror was removed from the jury pool. During a contempt hearing weeks later, the juror claimed she had forgotten she had made the six comments at issue and that she would have been fair to the pharmacist (who was convicted of first-degree murder). The judge refused to believe the juror, found her in contempt, and sentenced her to 100 hours of community service, which was to take place in the public defender's office.

    I Am Ready for the Verdict!

    OR, consider the juror who was ready to give her verdict halfway through the trial.  A Michigan juror posted on Facebook the following—"actually, excited for jury duty tomorrow. It's gonna be fun to tell the defendant they're GUILTY. :P." Unfortunately, this post occurred during a break between the end of the prosecution's case and the start of the defense. The judge was alerted to the post, and the juror was dismissed for misconduct, fined $250, and sentenced to write a five-page essay on the Sixth Amendment.

    We Did the Right Thing!

    Finally, consider the juror who defended the jury's guilty verdict.  A Virginia juror (under the username "Bedford") posted a defense of the jury's verdict on the website of the local paper, including the comment, "We were even given Jocelyn's journals," referring to the murdered victim's journals. Unfortunately, these journals had been excluded from evidence but had made it into the jury room, where jurors read aloud and passed around the journals. The judge sought and received the identity of the juror from the newspaper and subsequently declared a mistrial.

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    Topics: Internet, jury selection, Jeffrey T. Frederick, potential juror, social networking sites SNS, media websites, contempt citation, misconduct, Sixth Amendment, mistrial

    "I Know You’re Out There . . . How Attorneys Can Conduct Group Voir Dire More Effectively"

    Posted by Gale Burns on Mon, Oct 3, 2011 @ 16:10 PM

    Jeffrey Frederick, October 3, 2011

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    Topics: jury research, Jeffrey Frederick, group voir dire

    Facebook and Jury Tampering: A New Threat Posed by Social Networking Sites (SNS) to Jury Integrity

    Posted by Gale Burns on Mon, Aug 8, 2011 @ 13:08 PM

    August 8, 2011

    Jeffrey T. Frederick, Jury Research Services

    Recently, the judge in a criminal trial dismissed a jury prior to impaneling them after a friend of the defendant allegedly contacted one of the jurors through Facebook. The juror had reported this contact to the clerk of court. Review of the defendant's recorded telephone conversations from jail revealed the defendant, his girlfriend, and his mother discussing the names of three jurors, one name being that of the juror in question, with instructions from the defendant to contact them. The judge immediately dismissed the jury and revoked the bond of the defendant. An investigation into jury tampering is ongoing.

    In March 2011, a former councilman in South Carolina was convicted of jury tampering when he e-mailed grand jurors. He had e-mailed the foreman of the grand jury requesting that the grand jury look into cases of corruption in government.

    Much has been made of the impact of the Internet on jurors and the jury system. However, little attention has been paid to the threat posed by individuals contacting potential and trial jurors with the intent of influencing their verdict OR for that matter, jurors contacting the parties themselves, as was the case for a Manchester, England, where a juror received an eight-month jail sentence for contempt for both engaging in Internet research and having online conversations with an acquitted defendant through Facebook. Unfortunately for the juror, she was still deliberating on the fates of the remaining three codefendants at the time.

    Of course, jury tampering is not a new phenomenon. While the situation described at the start of this blog may not be the first instance of attempted jury tampering via Facebook or other social networking media, it serves as a warning of a new potential threat to jury trials. According to a Pew research study, 79% of adult Americans are using the Internet, with 59% of these using social networking sites ("SNS"), including Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and twitter.  These SNS serve as a direct channel to jurors serving in our courts today.

    Many courts today are revising jury instructions to address Internet issues. However, these instructions, justifiably, tend to focus on jurors seeking information on the Internet. It now appears that additional attention should be directed to instructing jurors early on about (a) not accepting "friend" requests before or during the trial by unrecognized inquirers; (b) reporting to the court all contacts or attempted contacts received from unrecognized inquirers (and recognized inquirers if relevant to the trial); and (c) admonishing jurors against contacting the party(ies) or witness(es) before or during the trial. These instructions should be added to the Internet instructions that address issues of communications concerning the case and the seeking of case-related information or other related Internet searching activity.

    As I point out in my book on voir dire and jury selection, Internet-related instructions should be treated separately from other media-related instructions and should include a discussion of the consequences for the juror and the trial that could arise from such activities.

    Recently, the juror questionnaire used in the perjury trial of baseball slugger Barry Bonds included instructions concerning the Internet and a statement of the consequences for such violations with an affirmation that the juror understood the court's order. This practice should be refined and expanded.

    Two remedies that I think are not warranted at this time are (a) having jurors accept a friend request from the court, and (b) using anonymous juries. The first option is more invasive and premature at this time.  The second option, using anonymous juries, was first fully implemented in 1977 and has received greater attention as of late. However, this remedy introduces the potentially negative effect of the influence of jurors rendering decisions under conditions of anonymity that are not warranted without significant concerns over juror safety, harassment, or intimidation. One study, and the only one found in a search on the topic, found that anonymous student-juries were more likely to convict and to use the most extreme sanction upon conviction than were nonanonymous juries.

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    Topics: jury research, Internet, jury selection, jury tampering, social media, social networking sites, Facebook, juror questionnaires, jury instructions, "friend" requests, communication with party or witness, Jeff Frederick, voir dire

    INTERNET: "Excuse Me, Your Honor. I’m Not Finished Blogging Yet!"

    Posted by Gale Burns on Fri, Jan 28, 2011 @ 16:01 PM

    February 1, 2011

    Jeffrey T. Frederick, Jury Research Services

    True story. I was being interviewed by Reuter’s reporter Brian Grow for a story he was doing on the Internet and jurors. As we were talking, he asked me if I wanted to look at something interesting that a potential juror was doing on the Internet. He directed me to a blog or as the juror distinguished, a “live journal.” Here are some samples of the comments the juror was making:

    Jury Duty—part III

    Oct. 20th, 2010 at 12:58 PM

    So. . . My group went to trial where for the next 2 hours hey did void dir-ing. The prosecutor has on the tackiest suit I have ever seen. Out of 50 potential jurors, there are at least 5 gays, right? - he'f better find them and use his challenges. Plus, he was annoying in his part of the questioning. the defense attorney, on the other hand, just exudes friendly. I wanted to go to lunch with him. And he's cute.

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    Topics: jury research, Jeffrey Frederick, Internet, jury selection, social networking, blogging, live journal

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