Jury selection is going well

Today, another session was held to select jurors for Michael Jackson’s murder case, during which the names of several more people were struck out. The judge said that, thanks to the complete and comprehensive 32-page questionnaire that provided the court with the fine details of the selected jurors, the process of deciding on these individuals’ qualifications is moving quickly. The questions in this questionnaire are very intelligently designed. For example, one of them asks: "Have you ever been in a situation where you asked your doctor for a specific medication and he disagreed with you?" This is exactly what Conrad Murray, the doctor accused of Michael Jackson’s involuntary manslaughter, was supposed to do. But what is the purpose of this question? Richard Hirschhorn, an expert in jury selection, says that those who have faced their doctor’s refusal have a more critical view of Dr. Murray’s performance. With 99% certainty, these people should be selected for the jury in this case. Both sides of the case—the prosecution, which seeks justice for the victim, Michael Jackson, and the defense attorneys, who represent the accused—each assign a score from 1 to 5 to the individuals based on the answers given in the questionnaires. They try to focus on those who receive the same rating from both sides, in order to uphold the principle of impartiality. The goal is not to choose people who want to be in court. The goal is to choose those who will remain and judge fairly. Each side can strike up to 10 of the selected jurors from the list without giving a reason. If any sign of bias is found among those numbers, they will be removed from the group. On the other hand, Howard Weinsky, another expert in jury selection, says that some of the questionnaire questions are ambiguous. For example, by ticking the checkbox that asks whether they are fans of Michael Jackson, it’s not clear whether they attended every concert on his tours and bought every album—or whether they only liked the trailers. Because these questionnaires are so effective, the judge said that only half of the legal time will be allocated for face-to-face questioning with the selected jurors. The prosecution and the defense attorneys can spend less than a minute asking each of these individuals. The prosecution says this time is too short and ineffective. Source: eMJey.com / LA Times