{"id":21946,"date":"2014-09-15T19:39:06","date_gmt":"2014-09-15T23:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=21946"},"modified":"2014-09-15T19:39:06","modified_gmt":"2014-09-15T23:39:06","slug":"what-goes-on-in-a-jury-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=21946","title":{"rendered":"What goes on in a jury room"},"content":{"rendered":"

Challenging the Privacy of Statements Inside the Jury Room – NYTimes.com<\/a>. is an absorbing story \u2212especially for those of you who have never been on a deliberating jury and don’t know what goes on behind that closed door:<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 In the summer of 2006, not far from Mount Rushmore, a truck collided with a motorcycle. The rider lost part of his leg.<\/em><\/p>\n

The rider sued, but a South Dakota jury sided with the truck driver. A few days later, one of the jurors approached the rider\u2019s lawyer. The juror, Stacey Titus, said he was having second thoughts.<\/em><\/p>\n

Those qualms set in motion a Supreme Court case to be argued next month, one that will examine the privacy of jury deliberations and consider how to address dishonesty during jury selection.<\/em><\/p>\n

In a sworn statement, Mr. Titus said the jury\u2019s forewoman, Regina Whipple, had allowed her judgment to be warped by her family\u2019s experiences.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Times article goes on to mention several cases in which jurors lied during the voir dire<\/em> selection process and\/or behaved shockingly in the jury room.<\/p>\n

We’re aware it can happen, but the jury selection processes I was involved in posed so many fairly clever questions to potential jurors, it would have been hard not to spot liars. Or so I thought.<\/p>\n

Still, do read this, especially if you feel that a jury should decide your case. And do look at the final short paragraphs. There’s a twist good enough for an Agatha Christie mystery.<\/p>\n

Definition of voir dire<\/em> (literally, in French, “to see, to say,” although Black’s Law Dictionary says, “Law French ‘to speak the truth'”\u00a0\u2212 don’t know where they got that because “truth” in French is “vrai”): “A preliminary examination of a prospective juror by a judge or lawyer to decide whether the prospect is qualified and suitable to serve on a jury.” Yeah, I’ll go with that one.<\/p>\n

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Challenging the Privacy of Statements Inside the Jury Room – NYTimes.com. is an absorbing story \u2212especially for those of you who have never been on a deliberating jury and don’t know what goes on behind that closed door: WASHINGTON \u2014 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[337],"tags":[711,309,712],"class_list":["post-21946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-news","tag-juries","tag-role-of-juries","tag-voir-dire"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t