Going further than his predecessor was willing to go, California Governor Jerry Brown has criminalized juror tweeting. Under AB 141, which will go into effect on January 1, 2012, any juror who willfully disobeys the court admonishment against any form of communication or research about the case, including tweeting, may be sent to jail for [...]
By Bob Kelley, October 31st, 2011
As you all know, the annual FJA Jury Selection Seminar is this Friday in Miami. If you have a jury selection problem or a particular area of concern in an upcoming jury trial, send me an email by this Wednesday, and I will make sure one of our speakers addresses it during the program. This [...]
By Bob Kelley, October 24th, 2011
The once-a-year FJA Jury Selection Seminar is going to take place a week from this Friday at the Intercontinental Hotel in Miami. This year’s seminar is part of the two-day Masters of Justice Program. If you are a trial lawyer who understands the importance of voir dire in the outcome of your trial, you won’t [...]
By Bob Kelley, October 18th, 2011
Last week the Fourth District Court of Appeal reinstated a $4.9 million dollar jury verdict against State Farm Insurance Company in a UM case that had been set aside by the trial judge on the grounds of “juror non-disclosure” about the juror’s prior litigation history. In Gamsen v State Farm, 36 FLW D1630A (Fla 4th [...]
By Bob Kelley, August 1st, 2011
A single mistake in jury selection can result in an entire new trial. Nowhere is that truer than in the area of “Neil Challenges” and peremptory strikes. A mistake there is usually reversible error per se. In Garcia v. State , 35 FLW D2328 (Fla 3rd DCA 2010), the Defense wanted to exercise a peremptory [...]
By Bob Kelley, November 2nd, 2010
Two memorandums of law were added to the Jury Blog today concerning the timing of peremptory strikes during jury selection. The law is clear that “the only fair [jury selection] scheme is to allow the parties to exercise their challenges … so that, before a party exercises a peremptory challenge, he has before him the [...]
By Bob Kelley, October 6th, 2010
Earlier this week the First District Court of Appeal, in a kafkaesque opinion, upheld a robbery conviction even though both the State and the Defense agreed on appeal that the trial judge had committed error during jury selection. In Hayes v. State, 35 FLW D2137A (Fla 1st DCA 2010), the defendant was charged with robbery [...]
By Bob Kelley, September 30th, 2010
A jury verdict was reversed earlier this month due to juror misconduct when the foreperson used his Iphone to look up the definition of “prudent” on Encarta during a break in the jury’s deliberations. In Tapanes v. State, 35 FLW D2031A (Fla 4 DCA 2010) the court wrote: “Although here we confront new frontiers in [...]
By Bob Kelley, September 20th, 2010
A common technique in voir dire, especially by defense attorneys, is to ask each prospective juror during jury selection whether the juror will “promise” to return a certain kind of verdict (e.g. guilty or not guilty) if it is supported by the evidence. Many trial judges for a variety of reasons will not permit that [...]
By Bob Kelley, August 19th, 2010
Potential juror Sanders may have been sleeping during jury selection. Florida law is clear that “sleeping” during voir dire is a valid race-neutral reason for striking a juror — not to wake him up, but to remove him from the panel! See, Davis v. State, 560 So2d 1346 (Fla 3d DCA 1990). When the prosecutor [...]
By Bob Kelley, February 25th, 2010
