Dennis Elias’s Latest Tweet :. Injustice News Twitter Feed :.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 that the 59-year-old [...]
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 of [...]
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 group, [...]
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 bat that [...]
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 people, to [...]
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 someone [...]
Mark Bennett | September 8, 2009
Back to our originally-scheduled program:
So you’re in jury selection, and you want to get the jurors talking about the things that maybe they’re not used to discussing in front of 60 near-strangers. What do you do?
Well, everyone knows The Playing Doctor Rule: I’ll show you mine if you show me yours, right? That’s our 11th [...]
Mark Bennett | August 31, 2009
I want to make it clear that I don’t do foolish things like play beer pong or run marathons. But I draw inspiration from the foolish things that other people do. So the next Simple Rule for Better Jury Selection is The Marathon Rule, to wit:
Save something for the end.
There’s the possibility that, while the [...]
