Juries

Jurors Nearly Came to Blows Over Race, According to Hearing Testimony

Two white jurors questioned in a special hearing about whether race infected jury deliberations in a Cape Cod, Mass., murder case said two jurors nearly got into a physical confrontation over the issue. The white jurors were among seven people questioned in the first day of an unusual hearing into…

Jan 11, 2008 5:29 PM CST

Potential Juror Jailed for Elevator Comment

A potential juror who discussed a three-paragraph Washington Post story with another in a courthouse elevator was jailed yesterday for disobeying an order not to discuss the case. Kenneth P. White reportedly mentioned the story about the murder retrial of Alfredo Prieto, the case for which he was called as…

Jan 9, 2008 5:27 PM CST

Indianapolis Court Targets No-Show Jurors

Seventeen no-show jurors in Indianapolis are getting a surprise from the Marion County Superior Court: warrants for their arrest. Judge Mark Stoner has been coordinating a crackdown on no-show jurors, and his court issued the arrest warrants for contempt of court, the Indianapolis Star reports. About half of people summoned…

Jan 9, 2008 4:19 PM CST

Jury Recalled to Testify About Alleged Race Bias

A judge who oversaw the high-profile trial of a man convicted of murdering fashion writer Christa Worthington has taken the unusual step of calling the entire jury back to testify next week about whether race impacted their deliberations. During a hearing set for Jan. 10 and 11, Barnstable Superior Court…

Jan 4, 2008 5:28 PM CST

Sure Cure for Jury Duty: Carry Sword

A man who reported for jury duty yesterday at the Brooklyn Supreme Court never made it to voir dire. Vladislav Lisetskiy, 40, was arrested when officers in the courthouse security line discovered he was carrying an unusual weapon—“a trick cane that concealed a 2½-foot sword and a 6-inch dagger,” reports…

Dec 11, 2007 6:10 PM CST

Deference to Trial Judge Debated in Jury Bias Case

A case concerning the exclusion of black jurors in a criminal case was back before the U.S. Supreme Court for oral arguments yesterday. Death-row inmate Allen Snyder is challenging the prosecutor’s use of challenges to excuse blacks from the jury panel and also his remarks, made during arguments in the…

Dec 5, 2007 2:05 PM CST

Scalia Deems Medical Device Liability ‘Extraordinary’

Updated: Several justices wondered in U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments yesterday whether juries in product liability cases should be allowed to consider the safety of a medical device that has been approved by the government. At issue in Riegel v. Medtronic is whether the tort claim is pre-empted by the…

Dec 5, 2007 12:48 PM CST

Judge Axes Verdict Due to Racist Remarks

A federal judge in Utah has thrown out a guilty verdict in an assault case against an American Indian defendant because of jurors’ racist remarks during deliberations. Rather than focusing on the allegations against defendant Kerry Dean Benally, who was accused of assaulting a federal officer investigating a report that…

Dec 3, 2007 8:37 PM CST

Jurors Get Post-Trial Counseling in 8 States

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…

Nov 26, 2007 8:13 PM CST

Va. Attorney Charged with ‘Embracery’

A Virginia civil rights attorney is now defending an unusual criminal case in modern-day America. Accused of improperly attempting to influence an Albemarle County grand jury, Deborah Wyatt is charged with five misdemeanor counts of embracery, an English common-law crime that dates back to the Magna Carta and was incorporated…

Nov 7, 2007 12:41 AM CST

ABA Calls for National Execution Moratorium

After a three-year study on state capital punishment systems, the American Bar Association is calling for a nationwide moratorium on executions until an unfair and sometimes inaccurate application of the death penalty is corrected. “The death penalty system is rife with irregularity—supporting the need for a moratorium until states can…

Oct 29, 2007 9:51 AM CDT

Divided 7th Circuit Rejects IL Gov’s Appeal

A former Illinois governor may soon be headed to jail after the rejection of his appeal of his federal corruption conviction. The full 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused today to grant an en banc hearing to reconsider an earlier decision by a divided three-judge appellate court panel to…

Oct 25, 2007 5:58 PM CDT

Indy Judges Crack Down on Jury Scofflaws

After judges in Indiana threatened tougher actions against perspective jurors who try to dodge jury duty, the Indianapolis area saw a surge in juror participation. Facing possible contempt of court—and possible jail time—more jurors showed up when called this week, according to the Indianapolis Star. After news reports about the…

Oct 24, 2007 8:20 PM CDT

Tort Reform Red Flag Raised in Alabama?

A recent $50 million jury verdict in the case of a man burned to death when his water heater exploded will only fuel tort-reform efforts in Alabama, according to an editorial. The Alabama Press-Register opinion piece acknowledges that jurors must have felt sympathy for the family of Richard Krantz. But,…

Oct 24, 2007 4:28 PM CDT

Exonerated But Still Struggling

Twenty years after he was convicted of rape based on an inaccurate witness identification, Marcus Lyons has finally been cleared by DNA evidence. His conviction has been dismissed by the DuPage County state’s attorney, and his name will soon be expunged from a database of convicted sex offenders, reports the…

Oct 22, 2007 3:52 PM CDT