Dennis Elias’s Latest Tweet :. Injustice News Twitter Feed :.Mark Bennett | July 2, 2010
It doesn't matter who asks them—defense lawyers, prosecutors, cops—or whom they are asked—witnesses, the jurors themselves, defendants—jurors don't like trick questions. Getting caught asking a trick question lessens the questioner's credibility. Here's a trick question that cops sometimes ask people suspected of DWI: "On a scale of zero to ten, how intoxicated would you say [...]
Mark Bennett | June 22, 2010
Some numbers, perhaps of interest to nobody but me: Panel average -0.15 Struck for cause average 0 Struck by defense average -0.02 Jurors sworn average -0.20 Struck by State average -0.69 Numbers are a measure of authoritarianism/egalitarianism based on scaled answers to eight questions, chosen unscientifically—according to how interesting they were to me. Lower numbers [...]
Mark Bennett | January 23, 2010
The American Society of Trial Consultants has published my Sixteen Simple Rules for Better Jury Selection in its online newsletter, The Jury Expert, along with responses from several jury consultants. Read the rules and responses here.
Mark Bennett | December 7, 2009
From Birmingham, Alabama: Court officials say a Birmingham woman who changed her name to Jesus Christ didn’t live up to it when she reported for jury duty this week. The woman, previously named Dorothy Lola Killingworth, was sent to Judge Clyde Jones’s courtroom for a criminal case Monday. Court officials told The Birmingham News Tuesday [...]
Mark Bennett | December 6, 2009
Jeff Gamso writes about birthers, (political) teabaggers, truthers, Flat-Earthers, alien abductees, and other unshakeable believers in alternate realities (21% of New Jerseyites surveyed weren’t sure that Barack Obama is not the Anti-Christ). What set Jeff off is that Arlington, Tennessee Mayor Russell Wiseman is one of these nutjobs. What sets me off is that lots [...]
Mark Bennett | September 10, 2009
The last rule for right now (it is an evolving list). . . . I’ve talked about how the jury panel is a group and the jury is a group. Why? Because people like to be in groups. Most people will, given a choice between being in a big group and being in a small [...]
Mark Bennett | September 10, 2009
If the rules were in some particular order, this would have received much higher ranking. Simple Rule 15: The Bat Rule: Ping, then listen. Or fail. Because bats, you know, use echolocation: ping! and detect food and obstacles by the signal that bounces back. A bat that doesn’t ping doesn’t eat, but neither does a [...]
Mark Bennett | September 10, 2009
Remember the scene near the end of To Kill a Mocking Bird in which Atticus Finch, having lost the case, wearily packs up his things to leave the courtroom? As he’s preparing to leave, the blacks in the gallery stand up for him; Reverend Sykes tells Scout, “Miss Jean Louise? Miss Jean Louise, stand up! [...]
Mark Bennett | September 10, 2009
In Simple Rule 12: The Field Trip Rule, I talked about how the jury panel is a group, and you have to stay with the group. This group has sixty heads and sixty bodies, each one of which is throwing off communications cues every second. It is not possible for one lawyer, talking to sixty [...]
Mark Bennett | September 10, 2009
In Simple Rule 2: The Blind Date Rule, I pointed out that the 60 potential jurors, by the time they reach the courtroom, are no longer strangers to each other; they have formed a group. When you get up to talk to them, what’s your relationship to the group? You’re an outsider. You are not [...]
Bad Behavior has blocked 3178 access attempts in the last 7 days.
