Jurors Get Post-Trial Counseling in 8 States

Juries

Jurors Get Post-Trial Counseling in 8 States

Posted Nov 26, 2007, 03:13 pm CDT
By Molly McDonough

Thanks to a victim's mother, Texas is now among eight states that offer post-trial counseling services to jurors.

The programs in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and Washington are designed to help jurors deal with feelings of anxiety, grief, anger and depression, USA Today reports.

Seattle courts have offered stress debriefing, right after trial when jurors "[show] signs of stress" since 1998. And in Detroit, court officials are looking to use an off-site facility.

Paula Hannaford-Agor, director of the Center for Jury Studies for the National Center for State Courts in Williamsburg, Va., is quoted saying that about 70 percent of jurors report stress in any type of jury trial. But the most stressful cases for jurors involved murder trials with graphic evidence and those involving the deaths of children.

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Juries