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	<title>The Florida Jury Selection Blog</title>
	<link>http://www.juryblog.com</link>
	<description>The Cure For The Common Voir Dire</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:16:02 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Don&#8217;t Let Sleeping Dogs Lie</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Potential juror Sanders may have been sleeping during jury selection. Florida law is clear that &#8220;sleeping&#8221; during voir dire is a valid race-neutral reason for striking a juror  &#8212; 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 used [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.juryblog.com/dont-let-sleeping-dogs-lie/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>U.S. Supreme Court Says Courtrooms Must Be Open To Public During Voir Dire</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Last week, the United States Supreme Court held that trial judges should not exclude the public from courtrooms during jury selection.
Eric Presley&#8217;s uncle came to court to watch jury selection in his nephew&#8217;s trial. He was the only spectator in the courtroom. The judge said he had to leave. The judge told him he could [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.juryblog.com/us-supreme-court-says-courtrooms-must-be-open-to-public-during-voir-dire/</link>
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		<title>&#8220;Hearing About&#8221; Murder Case Not Enough for Cause Challenge</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday the Fourth District Court of Appeal upheld the trial court&#8217;s denial of a challenge for cause directed at a potential juror in a case involving murder-for-hire. In Samuels v. State, __ So. 2d __ (Fla 4th DCA, May 13, 2009), the Court reaffirmed the longstanding rule that if there is any reasonable doubt about [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.juryblog.com/hearing-about-murder-case-not-enough-for-cause-challenge/</link>
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		<title>Maximizing The Power of Peremptory Strikes</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The law concerning the use of peremptory challenges in jury selection has been changing in recent years. There is a vast difference between Florida law and Federal law in this area. While &#8220;Cause is Still King,&#8221; the effective use of peremptory challenges can make or break the outcome of a trial. As Justice Adkins wrote [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.juryblog.com/maximizing-the-power-of-peremptory-strikes/</link>
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		<title>SCOTUS Upholds Verdict of Improper Foreperson</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Late last month the United States Supreme Court upheld the murder conviction of a man, Michael Rivera, who was convicted by a jury whose foreperson, Deloris Gomez, was improperly allowed to sit on the jury. Rivera v. Illinois, 556 U.S. __ (2009). During jury selection, Rivera&#8217;s attorney properly attempted to use one of his peremptory [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.juryblog.com/scotus-upholds-verdict-of-improper-foreperson/</link>
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		<title>A Wolf in Sheep&#8217;s Clothing</title>
		<description><![CDATA[During jury selection in a car accident trial, the defense attorney (who had been hired by an insurance company to defend the case), told the jury panel: &#8220;I&#8217;m a consumer justice attorney, and I represent John Hooks, a merchant marine, not some fancy company, not some conglomerate.&#8221; The plaintiff&#8217;s attorney immediately objected and moved for [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.juryblog.com/a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/</link>
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		<title>Prospective Juror Not &#8220;Under Prosecution.&#8221;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[On the day the jury was sworn &#8211; after a week of voir dire &#8211; a prospective juror got a traffic ticket. The ticket was for the &#8220;crime&#8221; of knowingly driving on a suspended license, a second-degree misdemeanor. No one in the courtroom on that day asked her about it. She didn&#8217;t tell anyone about [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.juryblog.com/prospective-juror-not-under-prosecution/</link>
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		<title>&#8220;Conflicting Views&#8221; Raise a Reasonable Doubt</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Today the Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed a criminal conviction because the trial judge failed to strike for cause a juror who &#8220;held conflicting views&#8221; on the presumption of innocence. Initially, during jury selection the juror stated &#8220;he&#8217;s guilty until proven innocent,&#8221; but later said &#8220;I think it was a misunderstanding earlier&#8230;,&#8221; and then went on to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.juryblog.com/conflicting-views-raise-a-reasonable-doubt/</link>
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		<title>Update on Juror Pay</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The section of The Florida Jury Selection blog dealing with juror pay has been updated thanks to the work of my brilliant law clerk, Kristin Bianculli. One of the most common concerns of potential jurors during voir dire is whether they will get paid while they are serving on a jury. State law only requires [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.juryblog.com/update-on-juror-pay/</link>
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		<title>U.S. Supreme Court and Racially Discriminatory Strikes</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The Supreme Court of the United States reversed a brutal murder conviction yesterday concluding that the prosecutor&#8217;s peremptory strike of a black college student appeared to be racially discriminatory. In Snyder v. Louisiana, 128 S. Ct. 1203 (2008) the Court held, in a 7 &#8211; 2 decision written by Justice Samuel Alito, that the trial court committed [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.juryblog.com/us-supreme-court-and-racially-discriminatory-strikes/</link>
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