By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: This is a political season for double standards, glass ceilings, and dancing backwards in high heels. Hillary Clinton, as the first female to be nominated for President by a major party, finds herself locked in a close race with one of the least conventional candidates in modern times, Donald Trump. That combination […]
Look Like You’re Winning (Part Two) Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: There is a central fiction of our jury trial system, and voir dire in particular. That fiction is that bias is the exception, not the rule. When we treat bias as the aberration, affecting a relatively small handful in any jury pool, we fail to appreciate the ubiquity of these habits and shortcuts
Know Your Cognitive Biases Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Don’t you think that, when faced with a choice between a safer option and a riskier option, one should take the safer option? Well, on face that seems pretty reasonable. Who wouldn’t want the safer option, after all? The problem is that if you take that literally, then you’ve probably never climbed into
Safely Handle the “Safety Rule” Question Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: The peremptory challenge right now shares one problem with the two leading presidential contenders: high negatives. In the recent Foster v. Chatman case, the United States Supreme Court overturned a murder conviction due to the prosecutor’s use of peremptory strikes to eliminate African-Americans from the jury based on seemingly flimsy excuses such
Don’t Expect Cause Challenges to Do the Work of Peremptories Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: In a recent jury selection, the attorneys, clients, and I were huddled over the seating grid for the panel, talking about our strikes. “I like Jones,” the client said, “with her background, she is really going to identify with our witnesses.” Those kinds of feelings are very common during this
Beware of “Frenemies” on Your Jury Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: I have a confession to make: I cannot resist joining political arguments on social media. I know, I know, no one ever changes their minds and nearly all discussions end in stalemate. But for a student of psychology, argumentation, and persuasion, they can be pretty illuminating nonetheless. And the biggest takeaway
Ask About News Sources in Voir Dire Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Here’s a tale of two witnesses, both of which I prepared in the last couple of weeks. One was a nervous wreck, absolutely convinced that his testimony would be a complete disaster. He felt, initially at least, that he had little to no control over the situation, and seemed to
Cultivate Good Stress Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: Witnesses make mistakes. And for the adversary, those mistakes can make for useful and entertaining cross-examination. We expect that to occur with fact witnesses who might be naive to the legal process and the attorney’s goals, but is there less opportunity to pounce on those mistakes when examining an expert?
Look for the Expert’s Mental Mistakes Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: There is quiet in the courtroom after the key witness on the stand is asked the critical question. As the jury, judge, and counsel wait for the answer, the witness pauses, looks up toward the ceiling, then looks back down, and answers.
Don’t Assume Looking Up Means Lying (But Do Assume Jurors Might Think That) Read More »
By Dr. Ken Broda Bahm: “Falsehood flies,” Jonathan Swift wrote, “and the truth comes limping after it.” Another version, attributed to Mark Twain, has the lie getting halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its shoes on. Both sentiments note the advantage that the false can sometimes have over the true. Modern
Make the Truth at Least as Sticky as the Myths Read More »