News Reporters Argue Judge’s Use of White-Noise “Husher” in Jury Selection Violates Constitution
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press last week filed an amicus brief in the D.C. Court of Appeals seeking an en banc hearing on the question of whether a trial judge’s use of a white noise machine to screen the Q & A of individual prospective jurors during jury selection violated the Constitution. The coalition of 18 media organizations claims that the screening interferes with the public’s First Amendment right of access to judicial proceedings.
Is “Geofencing” a Form of Jury Tampering or Just a New Techy Word?
In a California product liability case against the manufacturer of the weed killer Roundup, the plaintiffs asked the trial judge to block, during jury selection, the defendant’s use of targeted popup ads on cellphones touting the virtues and safety of the product. In modern parlance, this type of advertising is called geofencing or geomarketing. Plaintiffs were unsuccessful in convincing the judge that this is a type of jury tampering.
Oregon’s Nonunanimous Jury Verdict Rule Upheld
An intermediate appellate court upheld the constitutionality of Oregon’s nonunanimous jury verdict rule in criminal cases. In an earlier edition of the Jur-E Bulletin, we reported how Louisiana abolished non-unanimous criminal verdicts, thus making Oregon the only state to authorize such verdicts.
Lurid Photograph Shown to Jury Causes Verdict to Be Thrown Out
A Kentucky appellate panel ruled that a trial judge’s allowance of the jury to see an enlarged photo of the defendant’s genitals was “unfairly prejudicial as it could arouse the jury's sense of horror, provoke its instinct to punish, or base its decision on something other than the established prepositions in the case."
Court of Appeals Analyzes Defendant’s Challenge to the Representativeness of Tennessee Grand Jury Pool
In denying a defendant’s claim that African-Americans are systematically excluded from grand juries in the Eastern District of Tennessee, the federal appeals court for the 6th Circuit carefully examined grand jury statistics for the relevant time period.
Watergate Grand Jury Foreman Talks About the Burdens of Maintaining Silence
There is much discussion in the public square about the required confidentiality of grand jury references in independent counsel Mueller’s report to the Attorney General. A recent interview with the grand jury foreman in the Watergate break-in investigation provides readers with insights into how the rule of silence affects grand jurors.
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