Dallas Morning News - Jury…

                                        Dallas Morning News - Jury Series
                                        The Dallas Morning News has published an extensive series on the
August 26, 2005                         Dallas County Jury System. The series is a result of two years of
Despite the fact that summer
                                        research on jury data from felony court trials, focusing primarily on
technically continues beyond
August, I'm going to go ahead and       representativeness issues. The newspaper published articles on three
call this the last Jur-E Bulletin of    successive days - Sunday, August 21 through Tuesday, August 23. A
the summer, as kids are heading         message from the editor explains the purpose of the investigation, citing
back to school and the weather is       the history the Dallas County jury system has had as related to national
cooling off (FINALLY!). And as          representativeness issues.
summer ends, I have a personal          Generally speaking, the focus of the series was on the ways
request...                              peremptory challenges impacted the representative nature of the jury
As a Chicagoan out in Virginia, I       pool and the juries themselves. Researchers found that prosecutors in
solemnly request that all readers       Dallas County excluded black jurors more than twice as frequently as
pray for the Cubs - I've even found     whites; however, defense attorneys rejected whites three times as
a prayer for you! The end of            frequently as they did blacks. The consequence were juries that
summer almost always means the          mirrored the population, as the peremptory strikes balanced each other
end of the Cubs season. It looks        out.
as though this year may be more of      The series of articles focused on varying issues that arose from their
the same. But I think, with the         study, including Hispanic representation on felony trials, the role that
collective will of all Jur-E readers,   race plays in jury selection for defense attorneys, and the ability of
we might be able to do something        judges to detect bias in jury selection. Additionally, the series gives
about it. So let us put Steve           some measure of focus to Texas' unique practice of jury shuffling,
Bartman behind us, and hope that        which enables attorneys to rearrange a panel of prospective jurors,
October brings a wave of blue and       often with the hopes of moving more minority groups to the front of the
red baseball caps.                      questioning. Our own Tom Munsterman is cited in this article, pointing
Bulletin Board:                         out how unusual this practice is.
                                        The entire series can be accessed at a central page, which also
    q   Dallas Morning News - Jury      includes references to prominent Supreme Court cases, trial transcripts,
        Series                          and a glossary of terms. Furthermore, the main section also offers links
                                        to interactive portions, including a quiz on peremptory challenges and a
    q   Dissenting Jurors and Non-
                                        breakdown of acceptable reasons for strikes.
        unanimous Juries
                                        This series marks the second time that the Dallas Morning News has
    q   International Perspective:
                                        examined the racial makeup of the jury pool; the first was in 1986, and
        Innocence Review                was ultimately cited as "part of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion that
    q   Failure to Appear: Kansas       established an unprecedented process to eliminate the practice of jury
    q   Identity Theft Update           discrimination." This case was the now famous Batson v. Kentucky.
    q   Rule Changes in Michigan        The paper provides a link to that coverage as well. It is particularly
    q   Upcoming Events                 interesting reading to compare the differing perspectives from the same
                                        paper after nearly 20 years has passed.
    q   New Online
                                        While we generally try and avoid linking to papers that require
                                     registration, it was unavoidable in this instance - we recommend this
                                     feature as worth the free registration, and apologize for any
                                     inconvenience.



Dissenting Jurors Paid Less Attention on Non-Unanimous Juries
Special thanks to Leonard Post for bringing this article to our attention!
Earlier this month, the National Law Journal reported on a study of nonunanimous juries in Arizona. The
study used videotapes of 50 real life civil jury trials and the deliberations, and looked to see what impact non-
unanimity had on the proceedings.
The results, scheduled for full publication in the January issue of the Northwestern Law Review, show that
when juries are able to reach a conclusion without unanimity, they are less likely to pay credence to
dissenting jurors. Interestingly, the parameters of the study also allowed researchers to look at who the
judge would have sided with in the decision - the dissenting jurors or the minority. In six of the thirteen
cases, the judge agreed with those jurors who dissented. However, the taped proceedings revealed their
opinion was not as carefully considered.
The study also estimates that non-unanimous juries are only likely to prevent a retrial in .5% of the cases,
giving further support to the claim that unanimous requirements do not result in significantly greater numbers
of hung juries. For more information on this subject, see the NCSC study on hung juries, "Are Hung Juries a
Problem?"
We'll be awaiting the full study when it publishes in January. Links used by permission.
International Innocence Review
Special thanks to Professor Peter Duff
Last week, we published news on a proposed North Carolina law that would create an innocence review
board for that state. We commented that it seemed to mirror some European policies - an indeed, we
received this reply from Professor Peter Duff in Scotland:
"This sounds similar to the Criminal Case Review Commission, a statutory body set up in England in 1997
as a result of the notorious miscarriages of justice in some of the Irish 'terrorists' cases. A similar body was
set up in Scotland in 1999, of which I am one of 7 Commissioners. Norway has also recently set up a similar
body.
In Scotland, we are appointed by the Scottish Executive (not the judiciary) and comprise a mixture of
lawyers and lay members (as a legal academic I am somewhere in between) and we have considerable
investigative powers. We have 12 full-time legal officers who work for us in reviewing cases as well as
administrative support staff. We review applications from persons who have exhausted the appeal process
and may either reject them or refer them back to the Appeal Court for reconsideration. We cannot ourselves
overturn convictions.
I wrote an article about one aspect of the task faced by such bodies in 2001 Criminal Law Review 341-362.
This explains the background as well as dealing with the SCCRC's (and the English CCRC's) role. You can
also check out our website at www.sccrc.org.uk
In practice, we very rarely refer a case back to the courts purely on the basis that we think the jury got it
wrong. The most common ground for referral is fresh evidence, although we have referred because of
defective representation by the defense, a change in the law, jury impropriety etc. There is a table in our
latest Annual Report which is available on the website."
Kansas and Failure to Appear
Continuing in our tradition of newspapers reviewing the courts, the Wichita Eagle examined failure to appear
rates in Sedgwick County, Kansas. The paper found that less that 50 percent of jurors summonsed in the
county actually report to the courthouse in any given week. The article claims that the failure to appear
rates are impacting representativeness - a fact which led to a jury panel challenge last November.
Jurors failing to appear remains a problem worth addressing across the country. One starting point for
courts interested in taking on this problem would be the Massachusetts Delinquent Juror program, which
has had great success in reducing failure to appear instances. Additionally, all of our newspaper research
this week has highlighted the importance of keeping representativeness data, as it allows courts to respond
effectively to these types of reports and challenges.
Identity Theft - Update
Using the jury system for purposes of identity theft continues to be a problem across the country - Jur-E
received word of the scam being attempted in Michigan. In that article, David Weaver, the administrator of
the U.S. District Court in Detroit, stated that they had received word of the scam from the U.S. District Court
in Nebraska, as well as courts in Ohio.
It is safe to say that this is likely going to be occurring more and more frequently. We urge courts to remain
aware - please see past issues of Jur-E Bulletin for more information, or contact us for more resources.
Rule Changes in Michigan!
Some quick news from Michigan! The Michigan Supreme Court recently approved a rule change that will
allow jurors to ask questions of witnesses! Keep up the good work! For more information on questions to
witnesses, you can check out our resources on the web - we've published an Overview, FAQ, and Resource
Guide on the issue.
Upcoming Events

    q   September 13-15: 9th National Court Technology Conference (CTC9) in Seattle.
    q   September 18-23: AJA Annual Conference, Anchorage, Alaska. Everyone should visit Alaska at
        least once.
     q September 28-30: NCSC's Institute for Court Management presents its popular Jury Management

        course in Phoenix.
New Online
NCSC's recently completed study on voir dire in California has been posted online - you can view the
excellent research by Paula Hannaford-Agor and Nicole Waters on the Projects section of the Center for
Jury Studies website, or link to them individually: Voir Dire Study | Tax Credit Study | Jury Size Report
Jur-E Bulletin, August 26, 2005
Jur-E Bulletin is a publication of the National Center for State Courts' Jury Community of Practice and
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Editor: Chris Connelly
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