Denrael

Tuesday morning, and voir dire continues for the case I was assigned to Monday. Today, attorney questions started. In this case, the first juror was selected, and the defense attorney asked their questions. Once he was satisfied, he passed for cause, indicating he found that juror acceptable. At that point, the prosecuter proceeded to ask his questions and pass for cause.

In each case, the attorney’s took about 10-15 minutes per juror. The questions asked were a combination of ones probing their past, and feeling about isses related to the case (race, associations with police officers, etc.) and the other half what I would call “soft ball” questions designed to first put the juror at ease, and second, make the attorney appear more human and likable. In my professional life, I have often used the phrase “It’s All Marketing” indicating that every contact a prospective customer has with your product needs to be considered “marketing” and thought about from the consumer perception. In this case, the jury is the consumer, and it is obvious that attorney’s spend a large amount of time considering how best to appeal to their target audience. From a pure business perspective, it was fascinating. When my time is over, I will probably do a follow up post just on the marketing aspects.

There were 21 jurors in the jury box, the rest of us were behind the rail, waiting in case we would be called up. By lunch time, they had questioned the first 7 jurors. For me, lunch was a quick run to Caribou Coffee to use their wireless to do a quick email refresh. Following lunch (and the requsite hall time), the judge released about 10 of us back to the Jury Assembly Room for reassignment. Arriving back down in the sub-basement, I looked at the monitor and noted there were 26 cases remaining that day that might require potential jurors. I set up in the business center, and went to work on my real job (no, the magic worker bees didn’t show up and take care of it during the evening).

The next morning, attendence was at 9AM (stand in line and be wanded again), and I was called shortly after for the first case of the day. In this case, it was a pool of 25 jurors for a criminal trial. Once more through security, and up to the courtroom. Again, we spent the usual hall time during which we met Jessica, the judge’s judicial clerk. Once they were ready for us, we were taken inside to learn about the case, and once again voir dire.

A couple of differences noted thus far. In the first case, the judicial clerk made sure to give us each her card if we needed to contact her. She also had us each write down our name and number on a post-it. Jessica did neither, but later when she was missing one juror, had no problem getting his number and tracking him down. I am guessing this relates to the personal style of each judge and judicial clerk. From my (vast) experience of being in two courtrooms, there are definite differences in how they are run.

As I am still on this criminal trial, I will stop the post at this point, and resume the tale when the trial finishes.