Friday, October 21, 2011

Some more jury math

This past week I tried a DWI case in Harris County (that ended in an acquittal) and we used a series of scaled questions to obtain information from each of the jurors. The questions ranged from the jurors' attitudes toward police witnesses to their views on whether order is more important than liberty. Some of the questions pertain directly to trying the case and others seek to determine whether the juror is more individual-oriented or state-oriented.

The panel consisted of 20 people. The judge struck three for cause on his own motion (and made it quite clear during voir dire who they were). He told one juror that she was not going to be on the panel before I ever asked my first question. The judge also sustained an objection to my first question and pretty much instructed the panel how to answer it. Therefore, the results are based on 19 jurors answering five questions.

The panel consisted of 10 women and 9 men. Eleven of the panelists were white, six were Hispanic and two were African-American. There were three panelists in their 20's, three in their 30's, three in their 40's, three in their 50's and eight panelists were over the age of 60. On the actual jury there were five women and one man. Four of the jurors were white, one was Hispanic and one was African-American. Four of the actual jurors were over the age of 60, one was in his 30's and one was in her 40's.

A little word of warning - there were a few jurors whom I think answered with 5's for the last two questions because that seemed to be a reasonable position to take (in the middle).

The first question asked jurors to rate (on a scale of 0-10) how much weight they would give the testimony of a police officer solely because he wears a badge. The higher the number, the more weight they would give the officer's testimony.

The panel as a whole averaged a 0.2. The three jurors we struck, and the three jurors the state struck, averaged a 0.0. The six people (one man, five women) who heard the case averaged a 0.0.

The next question asked jurors to rate (on a scale of 0-10) whether they would hold it against my client if he didn't testify. The higher the number, the more they would hold it against him.

The panel as a whole averaged a 1.8. The three jurors we struck averaged a 1.3. The three jurors the state struck averaged a 3.0. The average for the actual jury members was a 1.7.

The third question asked jurors to rate (on a scale of 0-10) how much they agreed that it was better for 10 guilty men to go free than for one innocent man to be convicted. The lower the number, the more they agreed with the statement and the stronger they adhered to the presumption of innocence.

The panel as a whole averaged a 0.7. The three jurors we struck averaged a 1.0. The three jurors the state struck averaged a 0.0. The average for the actual jury members was a 1.3.

The fourth question asked jurors to rate (on a scale of 0-10) whether they felt that liberty or order was more important. The higher the number, the more they believed that order was paramount; therefore, the more state-oriented was the juror.

The panel as a whole averaged a 4.9. The three jurors we struck, as well as the three jurors the state struck, averaged a 5.0. The average for the actual jury was 5.0.

The final question asked the jurors to rate (on a scale of 0-10) which was a greater danger to liberty: overzealous law enforcement or criminals. The lower the number, the more they believed that overzealous law enforcement was the greater threat and the more individual-oriented was the juror.

The panel as a whole averaged a 5.6. The three jurors we struck averaged a 7.7. The three jurors the state struck averaged a 5.0. The average for the actual jury was 6.0.

The average answer for the panel as a whole (to all five questions) was 2.7. The average answer the three jurors we struck was 3.0. The average for the three the state struck was 2.6. The average for the six who sat on the jury was 2.8. Two of the actual jurors had previously served on a criminal jury. The foreperson indicated to me afterward that she found it harder to make a decision in this case case than in a murder case.

Both the panel as a whole and the six folks who served on the jury indicated that they wouldn't give a police officer "head start" and that there was little likelihood that they would hold my client's silence against him. They also indicated that they had no problem releasing a guilty man in order to avoid convicting an innocent man. The questions also indicated that this panel was a bit more state-oriented than individual-oriented.

Our decisions on strikes had more to do with the answers to other questions than they did with the answers to the scaled questions. In fact, we pretty much decided on our strikes before even considering the answers to the scaled questions.

When going back and doing the math, the panel was actually more favorable to our side than it seemed at the time.

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