Voir dire Essays

Runaway Jury, a 2003 film based on a John Grisham (1996) novel, brings to light a myriad of real life judicial system applications. A widow, who lost her husband as a result of gun violence, files a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the gun used in her husband’s unlawful murder. In turn, Vicksburg Firearms, the gun manufacturer company, hires a top of the line jury consultant (Gene Hackman) so as to aid their defense as well as ensure their win in the case. However, the jury that the consultant

question was first introduced as to whether a gun company can be held liable in some form for the death of a person, I knew then that the plaintiff would be in for a fight of their life against the gun companies. The movie got my attention during the voir dire. It pitted the big company with unlimited funds against the “common man,” almost like David versus Goliath. I began to play close attention to the jurors that were being picked, and I attempted to figure out their motives before the

Within society, people are motivated by self interest and self gain rather than concern for other members of the society. In moments of high crisis On the Waterfront directed by Elia Kazan and Twelve Angry Men written by Reginald Rose both depict characters driven by self interest rather than compassion. However On the Waterfront and Twelve Angry Men both have a character that defies the social norms of self Interest. The play script and film portray similar themes through different devices. The

The Traits Of Lance Preston The character Lance Preston, in the movie, Grave Encounters, had a crew and filmed an episode at a psychiatric hospital named Collingwood. Lance is our leader of the Grave Encounter crew. Lance takes his role as a leader very seriously, and he takes action without having it agreed upon team. Lance focuses more on himself and the show. He wants to provide evidence and show the world that ghosts are real and turn non-believers into believers. Walking into the hospital

12 angry men THE STORY UNFOLDS in front of us. The film places us as the audience into the shoes of the different jurors. Forcing us to make tough decisions of character and morality. We’re told very quickly and very efficiently that we’re dealing with a life-and-death situation. The jurors need to sentence a young man being accused of murder; all 12 jurors must come to a unanimous decision if they decide he’s guilty he’s be executed. If he’s declared innocent he walks free. The film essentially

Compare and contrast of Tom Robinson’s trial and the boy’s. Prejudice, racism, classes, apathy, justice. These are the wonders and horrors of the American judicial system. Both the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the play “Twelve Angry Men”, portray those subjects in both similar and different ways. The trials in “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Twelve Angry Men” had many similarities, but all of those stemmed into differences. I will be addressing the settings, the jury prejudice, the lawyers, and

Many people, if asked what they would prefer, would prefer to read the book instead of watching the movie. It could be because the movie will always leave some parts from the story out. It seems like directors of the movie always leave out parts from the book, only incorporating the important parts from the story. Some also say that they prefer to leave the descriptions of things in the book up to their imagination. Also, when you are reading the book, you get to read the main characters point of

Foreman (juror1): He being a foreman was forced to act as a leader. As he was a football team coach, he was well aware of the importance of team playing and team coherence. Juror #6 is probably the most invisible juror of the entire bunch. He only has a handful of lines in the movie, and he tends to come across as a guy who's willing to change his mind if people can convince him. As he says toward the beginning of the movie, "I don't know. I started to be convinced, you know, with the testimony

A recent judgement of the court involving the manager of a football club has sparked a lot of public interest and criticism. The court held that the manager, Alex Ferg could not hold a maintainable suit against the defendants as it involved multiple pharmaceutical companies. The works of Ernest Weinrib, a law professor at University of Toronto who developed the theories of private law were cited. Private law is an area of law which deals with private relationships between individuals including

A serial killer is defined as “an individual who kills more than three people in succession without a cooling off period”. From the beginning of recorded history to the present day, humankind has seen its share of serial killers from Giles De Rais to Jack the Ripper, murder is not a new concept. However in 2006 a new name was added to the ongoing list of serial killers, Robert Pickton, aged 58, plead not guilty to 27 charges of first degree murder. During the course of his trial, a lengthy delay

The jury system continued to evolve over a period of time and eventually the United States Constitution was written to govern the jury system. The Sixth and Seventh Amendments stated that we should have 12 members and the cases were to be resolved upon a unanimous verdict (Landsman & Holderman2010). In the 1970’s the court approved juries of 12 or fewer and a non-unanimous verdict in civil cases in federal court cases. Since the evolution of the judicial system it has become easier to get jurors

The Sixth Amendment in the United States Constitution is where we are promised: “the right to a speedy and public, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.”

Alford plea – When a defendant neither wants to admit full guilt, nor do they want to plead no contest or innocent, there is yet another possible option. If a defendant wants to assert that they are indeed innocent, but they know that the prosecution has enough evidence to prove that they committed the crime they are being charged for, they can enter an “Alford plea,” which is also known as a “Kennedy plea” in West Virginia. Essentially, this plea is a guilty plea, not because of an admission to

Death Qualification: Choosing Jury in Death Penalty Cases Death qualification is a process unique to capital trials in which prospective jurors are questioned about their beliefs regarding the death penalty. Courts can eliminate potential jurors who are not willing to vote for the death penalty in a capital case. If the judge believes that a juror 's feelings about the death penalty would impair his or her ability to judge the case and choose the punishment fairly, that juror will be dismissed "for

Leslie Ryan, begin this process, which is called Voir-Dire. Here, the lawyers can ask the selected jury any question they desire to try and untangle whether jurors will find the defendant guilty or not guilty. Some Lawyers even bring in social scientists to help them figure out which way jurors will lean. The judge on the other hand, has a set list of questions they must ask the jurors. The only requirement for eliminating jurors during the Voir- Dire is that no juror can be excused based on race.

The Steubenville High School Rape case, is one of the high profile criminal cases within the last two years. The case occurred in Steubenville, Ohio on August 11,2012. When a sixteen year old girl was intoxicated and raped.She was publicized through social media of a video and sexually assaulted by two of her peers at a party. With an underage drinking party at Matt Belerdine’s house. Two students from Steubenville High School from the football team Richmond Ma’lik and Trent Mays were convicted in

questionnaires for a chance to serve on a panel of jurors in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s Boston Marathon Bombing trial. Of those prospective jurors, the judge presiding over the trial narrowed down the jury pool to just over 250 people through the process of voir dire. By personally interviewing each prospective juror individually, the judge is able to determine which of those jurors are the most qualified and competent to serve on a trial jury. The 250 jury prospects were eventually whittled down to a mere

Batson V. Kentucky case. A simple overview of the case is the offender James Batson was an African American male from Kentucky. Batson was accused of burglary and receiving stolen merchandise in 1981. During the court proceedings, the judge conducted voir dire to determine the ability of the jurors and discharge the jurors that did not meet the proper qualifications. When it was the prosecutors turn to make peremptory challenges, he utilized four out of the six challenges to remove the four African Americans

In a trial the prosecution and defense can exercise this right a limited number of times. This can be used when a lawyer believes that a juror is biased or the juror is bothered by a question during voir dire (examination of witness). Challenge for cause is different because a unlimited amount of jurors can be excused by the consent of the judge. In these cases jurors feel as if they cannot continue because of personal bias due to personal relationships

The legal system is in need of the assistance of experts when evaluating the reliability of evidence given by eyewitnesses. Caution on the part of the jurors, when considering the accuracy of eyewitness accounts, should exercise focus on factual events as opposed to emotionally charged portrayals. Eyewitnesses who express confidence over their recollection of the events are not significantly more accurate and Arkowitz & Lilienfeld (2009) recommend educating presiding jurors over the dynamics of eyewitness